Hacker Behind Leaked Nude Celebrity Photos Gets 10 Years 346
wiredmikey writes "A U.S. judge sentenced a computer hacker to 10 years in prison on Monday for breaking into the email accounts of celebrities and stealing private photos. The hacker accessed the personal email accounts and devices of stars including Scarlett Johansson, Christina Aguilera and Renee Olstead, among dozens of other people he hacked. The hackers arrest in October 2011 stemmed from an 11-month investigation into the hacking of over 50 entertainment industry names, many of them young female stars. Hacked pictures of Johansson showed her in a state of undress in a domestic setting. Aguilera's computer was hacked in December 2010, when racy photos of her also hit the Internet. Mila Kunis' cell phone was hacked in September that year with photos of her, including one in a bathtub, spread online. According to the FBI, the hacker used open-source, public information to try to guess a celebrity's email password, and then would breach the account."
Don't put things online you want to keep private (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not quite clear why anyone thinks that putting things online in any capacity is safe from prying eyes, particularly if they're a celebrity. I don't defend the actions of these "hackers" (pfft), but the photo owners should be smart enough to take some precautions or find someone that can help them do it.
Re:Open Source information? (Score:5, Interesting)
What is Open Source information? The OSI foundation doesn't seem to be doing a good job of enforcing the trademark of the term Open Source
"Open source" simply means something that was openly published and available to the public. The term has been in use for at least a century. The OSI foundation has no trademark on the term.
That fact that this guy got the info from open sources doesn't make it okay. If I find your key under your doormat, that was stupid of you, but it doesn't make it okay for me to rob you. This jerk got what he deserves.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wake up call (Score:5, Interesting)
Further proof celebs are fucking dumb. This guy wasn't a "real hacker".
On the contrary, guessing a password is a truly classic hack. What is more of a "real hack" from your perspective? Downloading and running a cracking script? To guess a person's password from information publicly available about them is a prime example of security-oriented thinking.
The best hacks are tailored precisely to the circumstances.
Re:Wake up call (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a made-up narrative for an alter ego where I know all the answers to those questions (e.g., what's your mother's maiden name?) and I use those answers instead of the real ones. So you can do all the research you want on me, and you'll get wrong answers for those questions. But I'm weird that way... :-)
Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Wake up call (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Open Source information? (Score:5, Interesting)
They didnt. they define "Open Source". Caps have a purpose, you know.
There are a handful of case-sensitive words [wikipedia.org] in English. "Open Source" isn't one of them.