Christopher Chaney, a Florida man, has been arrested for hacking into dozens of email accounts belonging to celebrities and others in the entertainment industry. Chaney has been confirmed to be the man who leaked nude pictures of Scarlett Johansson online, but also targeted other celebrities like Mila Kunis. Chaney was targeted by the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles in a bust dubbed "Operation Hackerazzi."
Chaney, a 35-year-old resident of Jacksonville, was arrested today in Florida without incident by FBI agents. He has been charged with multiple counts of computer hacking, aggravated identity theft, and wire fraud. If convicted of all charges, he could face up to 121 years in prison.
Chaney was able to hack into the celebrities' email accounts by combing through publicly available information to guess and crack either their passwords or security questions. Once he had hacked into the accounts, he set the accounts to forward all mail to his email account. Even if the victim reset his or her password, he would still receive that person's email.
In addition to nude photos, Chaney also collected movie scripts, personal conversations, and financial information.
Besides Johansson, Renee Olstead, Mila Kunis and Christina Aguliera are also a confirmed victims. The case involved more than 50 victims in the entertainment industry. Chaney might have also targeted celebrities such as Vanessa Hudgens, Ali Larter, Jessica Alba, Blake Lively, and Emma Caulfield.
Other sites did get a hold of the photos that Chaney hacked, but there's no indication he profited from selling the images. It's not clear if websites that published the photos will face charges.
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