A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for hacking into the email and online accounts of female celebrities and stealing nude photos and videos.
Ryan Collins, 36, pleaded guilty in May to gaining access to more than 100 Google and Apple accounts from November 2012 to September 2014.
Many of the accounts belonged to famous women including Jennifer Lawrence, Gabrielle Union, Kirsten Dunst and Kate Upton.
The father-of-two agreed to take a plea deal after violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Federal prosecutors said Collins used a scheme called phishing, in which he was able to get victims to provide information about their accounts in response to emails that appeared to come directly from Apple and Google.
In the scheme, he asked account holders to provide their log-in data, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In some instances, authorities said, he was able to obtain all the files his victims had stored online, including their nude photos and videos.
The married father-of-two (pictured in his previous job as a personal chef) agreed to take a plea deal after violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Collins was accused of gaining access to more than 100 Google and Apple accounts from November 2012 to September 2014. Many of those accounts belonged to famous women
The hacked stars included Jennifer Lawrence, left, and Kate Upton, right, but prosecutors said Collins was not suspected of being involved in the leak of those images in September 2014
Prosecutors say there was no evidence that Collins leaked any of the stolen images online or shared any of the information he had obtained.
Collins accessed 50 iCloud accounts and 72 Gmail accounts using the phishing scheme, many of which belonged to female celebrities, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Kirsten Dunst’s stolen graphic photos were also released during the ‘Celebgate’ leak
He was charged as part of an investigation into the posting of nude photos of numerous celebrities, including Lawrence and Upton, but prosecutors said he was not suspected of being involved in releasing those images.
His hacking was discovered while federal officials were investigating ‘Celebgate’, which was the widespread online leak of stolen, nude celebrity photos in September 2014.
Collins could have faced up to five years in federal prison, but the judge agreed to the prosecutors’ recommendation of 18 months.
According to his Facebook page Collins is married and has two children. He is originally from Hershey, Pennsylvania, and currently lives in Lancaster.
His LinkedIn profile says he graduated from James Madison University in 2003 with a degree in integrated science and technology.
He works as a creative project manager for the eCommerce marketing company Listrak in Lancaster.
He has previously worked as an art director and webmaster, and as a personal chef.
