George Garofano, a 26 year old male who belongs to Connecticut, was recently pleaded guilty for hacking into 250 iCloud accounts, which included celebrity accounts as well.
The aim of these hacks was to get personal information of celebrities including private videos and photographs, a lot of which were later spread on the internet and caused quite a stir.
The man also confessed to trading this information (login details) with others. The victims were not aware of being hacked till their personal data made it to the public in most cases.
Which Celebrity Accounts Were Hacked
George managed to hack the accounts of many celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst’s, Kate Upton and many more.
Lawrence was among the most vocal celebrities who asked for the law to be changed.
How Did He Hacked Into iCloud Accounts?
Upon investigation, it was revealed that George used phishing mails that seemed like legit emails sent from Apple and asked account bearers to share their username and passwords, with which he was able to get into their accounts and steal nude and private videos to either sell it or post on the internet.
Phishing is a very common technique that has been used to even hack banks in the past.
The Bottomline
A 2014 investigation in which private photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and Kirsten Dunst were made public led to the arrest of George Garofano. However, he got released on $50,000 bail and can be imprisonment for up to 5 years.
Several others were also caught in this case. The sentencing date is yet to be announced by the court.
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