A Pennsylvania man has agreed to plead guilty to hacking into the email accounts of more than 100 people, mostly female celebrities, then removing nude photos and videos taken from the accounts in a case that made headlines in August 2014.
Ryan Collins, of Lancaster, Pa., was charged with felony computer hacking by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. The two sides quickly settled on a plea agreement that has Collins pleading guilty to felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He faces up to five years in prison, the Department of Justice said in a release.
The plea deal states that between November 2012 and early September 2014 Collins used phishing scams to obtain login credentials for 50 iCloud and 72 Gmail accounts from which he removed photos and videos of the celebrity victims. The pics were posted in August 2014 on 4chan and quickly went viral.
