The hacker that so many people have heard about in the news, known for leaking exclusive, private nude pictures of celebrities has gone to court and plead guilty. He tricked numerous people into giving over their Apple and Gmail passwords through the Internet, and was able to get into their private archives for the photos that they’ve taken in the past, and perhaps sent to others.
The Details
He wasn’t one of the Celebgate guys that hacked into many celebrities accounts, though he did hack into some, including others that were not celebrities and then posted these conversations, photos and other personal things across the web for everyone to view.
Andrew Helton, who is 29 and from Portland, Oregon is the one that pleaded guilty in this case. He is pleading against a felony of gaining unauthorized access to private and protected computers in order to gain information from them, that is not his own information to obtain. This is something that should never be done by anyone.
He was able to gain access to all of these accounts by sending out an email stating that he needed to verify the passwords on Gmail and Apple accounts. The people then input their passwords, that are then sent back to his computer with what they type through a key logging software program, allowing him to sign into their accounts through this.
He received 448 logins from 383 email accounts due to this type of hacking that was done. 13 victims had nude, or partially nude photographs on their accounts that he was able to gain access too, and some of these victims were celebrities. This is something that is hard to do, but when it is done, the police have to track down where the links came from.
He then proceeded to put this information on the web, causing an uproar, and essentially giving himself up due to the hack. He is expected to hear his verdict soon. However, he states that not all, if any of the pictures were leaked online, but this is being investigated into further.
