Fappening – A fourth hacker, George Garofano (26), of North Branford, has been charged with hacking into over 250 Apple iCloud accounts belonging to celebrities.
A fourth hacker, George Garofano (26), of North Branford, has been charged with hacking into over 250 Apple iCloud accounts belonging to celebrities.
Garofano had been arrested by the FBI and a federal court has accused him of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
From April 2013 through October 2014, Garofano used phishing attacks against the victims to obtain their iCloud accounts credentials, access the accounts and steal personal information, including private photographs and videos.
“According to the plea agreement, from April 2013 through October 2014, Garofano engaged in a phishing scheme to obtain usernames and passwords for iCloud accounts. Garofano admitted that he sent e-mails to victims that appeared to be from security accounts of Apple and encouraged the victims to send him their usernames and passwords, or to enter them on a third-party website, where he would later retrieve them.” reads the press release published by the DoJ.
“Garofano used the usernames and passwords to illegally access his victims’ iCloud accounts, which allowed him to steal personal information, including sensitive and private photographs and videos, according to his plea agreement. In some instances, Garofano traded the usernames and passwords, as well as the materials he stole from the victims, with other individuals.”
As part of the Fappening case, nude pictures of many celebrities were leaked online, the list of victims is long and includes Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton, and Jennifer Lawrence.
Garofano also traded the stolen credentials, as well as the information he stole from the victims’ accounts, with other individuals.
In a plea agreement signed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Garofano agreed to plead guilty to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information.
The man is now facing up to 5 years in federal prison.
Garofano is the fourth man charged in connection with the Fappening saga, in past months Emilio Herrera, Edward Majerczyk, Ryan Collins, pleaded guilty to being involved in the attacks on the celebrities’ iCloud accounts.
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(Security Affairs – Fappening, FBI)
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