John Arnold Kronstadta, district judge on the United States District Court for the Central District of California, penalized an individual for half a year in prison, for stealing numerous Apple and Google email addresses and private pictures, as some of those accounts belonged to celebrities. The judge also fined the 29-year-old hacker with a penalty of three thousand dollars, who was found guilty of hacking five months ago. Andrew Helton, an American citizen from Portland, Oregon, acknowledged that he started collecting emails in 2011, using phishing tactics – which gave him fewer than four hundred emails and passwords.
According to Andrew Helton, he emailed people stating that they should verify their accounts to further use them. Naturally, after clicking the link, the account holders would be taken to a fake page requiring their credentials for their Apple and Google accounts. From here, this fake page would pass account information to the hacker’s server. Once Andrew had the credentials, he would search the accounts and retrieve a few pictures of more than a hundred people, including celebrities.
According to the team investigating his case, Andrew methodically looked for and took personal pictures for private use, implying that the targets suffered as he took pleasure viewing the intimate pictures. His hackings were a big concern to the security and privacy world, which triggered significant damage to the people subjected to this online invasion; although the targets of Helton’s hacks were not identified by their names.
However, one of the victims presented a letter to the judge confirming the damage done by the Andrew, saying it caused him problems sleeping; loads of stress, which subsequently impacted on his professional life.
Before the lengthy sentencing, Helton decided to accept the responsibility and work with the authorities to have his jail term reduced.
Furthermore, revelations suggest that Helton is dealing with bipolar disorder, going into sessions soon after the authorities searched his residence. Also, his lawyer stated that Helton had two master degrees that were not related to the field of technology, and that his extraordinary hacking skills can be used by the authorities – as he wanted to collaborate with them. His lawyer also stated that before the hacks started, Helton was dealing with his father’s cancer diagnosis, along with the death of his pet and also the end of his five year relationship. However, his lawyer highlighted that Helton’s method used was nothing new; the phishing emails method has existed for a long time.
Helton, who is set to go to jail in October, is the most current of the members being sued for stealing and hacking the credentials of Hollywood celebrities. Awareness of such hacks was raised on social media platforms – especially on Twitter using #celebgate – with the extensive sharing and searching of compromised and unclothed celebrity images on the web. Images of actress Jennifer L. and supermodel Kate U. were published on Twitter among other websites.
Three months back, 36-year-old Ryan Collins (one of the group members responsible for The Fapping hacks) stated in front of the Californian judge that he was accountable for most of the phishing attacks that captured a hundred and twenty-two credentials of Apple and Google accounts combined.
However, returning to Andrew Helton, he stated in a letter written to the judge, he regretted what he did, but he did it because of his maniacal OCD driving him to initiate a plan, which according to him, he still fails to completely comprehend.
According to him, he didn’t use any advanced hacking methods. Helton stated he only copied and pasted the web pages, then altered them before sending the details to his servers. Also, he stated that the email addresses that he got were discovered on the Internet and were not hacked specifically.
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