A Florida man was charged with hacking into the emails of dozens of people, including Christina Aguilera, Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis, in a computer invasion scheme that targeted Hollywood celebrities, according to documents released Wednesday.
A man has been arrested following an FBI investigation into a Hollywood hacking ring which stole naked photographs from the phones and email accounts of celebrities.
The man has been charged with hacking into celebrity email accounts in a scheme that led to the posting of private information, including nude photos of American actress Scarlett Johansson, on the internet.
It was the first arrest in a year long probe called Operation Hackerazzi, which has sought to identify those obtaining private images from electronic devices belonging to female stars.
Christopher Chaney of Jacksonville hacked Google, Apple and Yahoo email accounts beginning last November and December, then hijacked the forwarding feature so that a copy of every email received was sent, "virtually instantaneously" to an email account he controlled, according to an indictment handed up Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles.
There were more than 50 victims in the case, including Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera and actress Renee Olstead, authorities said. Others were named only by initials and investigators wouldn't disclose if they were famous, but said victims named in the indictment agreed to have their identities made public.
Chaney offered some material, including photographs, to celebrity blog sites and some of the files and photographs ultimately were posted, according to an FBI statement.
Chaney allegedly used the hacker names "trainreqsuckswhat", "anonygrrl" and "jaxjaguars911". He is charged with 26 counts of identity theft, unauthorized access and unauthorized damage to a protected computer.
Chaney made his initial court appearance in a Florida courtroom Wednesday and was released on $10,000 bond. He was charged with 26 counts of identity theft, unauthorized access to a protected computer and wiretapping. If convicted, he faces up to 121 years in prison.
Authorities said Chaney was responsible for stealing nude photos taken by Johansson herself and were later posted on the internet.
Last month nude images of the actress Scarlett Johansson appeared on the internet after reportedly being taken from her mobile phone by hackers.
High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens has also reportedly spoken to the FBI about compromising images being stolen her email accounts.
Mila Kunis, Selena Gomez, Jessica Alba, Miley Cyrus and Christina Aguilera were also among the celebrities believed to have been targeted by a hacker in recent months.
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| Scarlett Johansson, Miley Cyrus, Christina Aguilera, Vanessa Hudgens - famous victims of the hacker |
Speaking after having her private photographs stolen by hackers last month, Miss Johansson said: "Just because you're in the spotlight, or just because you're an actor or making films or whatever, doesn't mean that you're not entitled to your own personal privacy."
A federal grand jury claims that, beginning late last year, Chaney gained unauthorised access to the email accounts of more than 50 people - but the indictment only listed 11 specific incidents.
The suspect was arrested in Florida and is believed to have distributed any images obtained from the hacking to websites for free.
He allegedly offered some of the hacked material, including photographs, to websites and some of it was said to have been posted.
The "cyber intrusions" may have targeted devices including desktop computers, laptops, iPads, mobile phones and personal online accounts.
Authorities wouldn't say whether Chaney was able to access email accounts via mobile phones, but he was able to figure out secure passwords to various celebrity accounts through information that had been made public.
Chaney "mined through publicly available data and figured out passwords and security questions".
Investigators said they hoped the celebrity-infused case will jumpstart those who don't value online security enough to protect their personal information and create more secure passwords that can't be easily figured out by would-be hackers.
Celebrities and people in the news have long been targets of privacy invasion but concerns have redoubled in the internet age.
In Britain, publisher Rupert Murdoch closed down the News of the World this year after contentions that the tabloid routinely hacked into people's phones in the hunt for exclusive stories.
The paper, which had published for 168 years, faced allegations of systematically intercepting private voicemail of those in the news - including a teenage murder victim.
