Ryan Collins, the man behind the celebrity nude leaks, more commonly known as "The Fappening," or "Celebgate" has been sentenced to eighteen months in prison. Collins previously agreed to a plea deal to shorten the sentence from five years to a year and a half in federal prison.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, U.S. District Judge William Caldwell sentenced the 36-year-old hacker to 18 months in federal prison on Wednesday. Collins was previously charged with felony computer hacking in March, and would have faced up to five years in prison, but the plea deal reduced his sentence to a year and a half.
Hacker sentenced to 18 months in prison over celebrity nude photo leak. https://t.co/B3JRG8JjPR pic.twitter.com/QRYgt8ELkS
— Variety (@Variety) October 28, 2016
There have been more than 600 victims identified by investigators. Among them is the "The Hunger Games" star, Jennifer Lawrence. Also identified are celebrities: Kate Upton, Ariana Grande and Gabrielle Union, among others.
Although there is no evidence to prove that Collins uploaded or shared the nude celebrity photos, he confessed to using an email phishing scheme to acquire the private photos from the victims' Apple iCloud backups. Investigators added that Collins used a software program to download the contents of the victims' iCloud backups, as well as a modeling scam to trick his targets into sending nude photos of themselves.
According to International Business Times, the scheme tricked the victims into believing that they have received an email from Google or Apple asking for their login credentials. The hacker then stole their information including content from their iCloud backups which contained photos.
Investigators found that Collins had gained access to no less than 50 iCloud accounts in addition to 72 Gmail accounts. Google was allegedly threatened with a $100-million lawsuit from various celebrities who had their nude photos stolen.
In September 2014, the FBI started an investigation to look into the leaked nude photos, or what is colloquially known as "The Fappening," or "Celebgate." There is no evidence to link Collins to "The Fappening," or "Celebgate."
