The pictures, released in 2014 to the public during an event that became known as "The Fappening," revealed private moments for many popular celebrities, most notably Jennifer Lawerence.
Government officials say Collins will plead guilty to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information. It is unclear what the punishment will be for his crimes.
While there had been rumors that the hackers had used brute-force methods to break into the iCloud accounts, it appears that Collins used a very simple method: phishing. The DOJ says Collins used emails such as "e-mail.protection318@icloud.com," "noreply_helpdesk0118@outlook.com," and "secure.helpdesk0019@gmail.com" and sent hundreds of emails to potential victims asking them to reset their iCloud and Gmail usernames and passwords. From there he would download the entire iCloud backup or would manually go through any email with picture attachments.
Collins is notably not being charged with releasing the photos, suggesting someone else purchased the pictures and then released them later.
Source:
Fusion
Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Mar 2016 10:07
