Pennsylvania man sentenced to 18 months for celeb hacking

A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison on charges of hacking the Google and Apple email accounts of over 100 people including celebrities, and getting access to nude videos and photographs of some people.

The sentencing against Ryan Collins, 36, of Lancaster is the offshoot of a Department of Justice investigation into the online leaks of photographs of numerous female celebrities in September 2014, widely referred to as “Celebgate.”

But DOJ has not found any evidence linking Collins to the actual leaks or the sharing and uploading of the content.

Between November 2012 and early September 2014, Collins is said to have sent e-mails to victims that appeared to be from Apple or Google and asked them to provide their usernames and passwords. Having gained access to the email accounts, he got hold of personal information including nude photographs and videos, and in some cases used a software program to download the entire contents of the victims’ Apple iCloud backups, according to DOJ.

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