News.sky.com
(Singer Rihanna was among around 600 celebrities targeted)
Victims included actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlett Johansson, model Kate Upton and singer Rihanna, among others. According to a statement from US prosecutors, Collins “engaged in a sophisticated phishing scheme to obtain usernames and passwords for his victims.”
News.sky.com
(Model and actress Kate Upton’s private photos were leaked online in 2014)
He would send what appeared to be official Apple or Google e-mails to his victims, asking them for usernames and passwords. “In addition, Collins ran a modelling scam in which he tricked his victims into sending him nude photographs,” prosecutors said.
News.sky.com
(Actress Teresa Palmer was one of the hacker’s victims)
Lawrence spoke publicly about the leak a few months after it became public. The Oscar-winning actress said at the time she believed it constituted a “sex crime”, and should be prosecuted as one. In an in-depth interview for Vanity Fair, Lawrence said “just because I’m an actress, doesn’t mean I asked for this”. “It’s my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world,” she said.
News.sky.com
(Cara Delevingne was one of the British stars whose pictures were leaked)
Collins was convicted of accessing and stealing the photos – but not of releasing them online. A second man, Edward Majerczyk, was charged in July with illegally accessing the iCloud and Google Mail accounts of more than 300 people. According to the US Attorney’s Office, he faces a maximum five-year jail term after admitting the charge in a plea agreement. No one has yet been accused of posting the photos and videos online.
The leak is still under federal investigation.
via News.sky.com
