Email accounts get hacked every day and nothing is the big deal about them. However, when a person hacks the account of a celebrity and posts his or her private info online, now that’s a scandal. A hacker who’d been the cause of such a scandal has now been awarded 10 years in prison by a U.S. District Judge.
Christopher Chaney was nabbed by the authorities during the ‘Operation Hackerazzi.’ Chaney had been involved in breaking into the email accounts of numerous celebrities and leaking their personal data on the web.
Among the celebrities whose email accounts he hacked were Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, Simone Harouche, Christina Aguilera and Renee Olstead. In total, he was able to access the personal data of more than 50 celebrities but most of them refused to be a part of any ongoing investigations on the case.
Interestingly, Chaney didn’t use any high-profile hacking techniques to break into the email accounts. Rather, he simply used the ‘Forgot Your Password’ option to take an educated guess at the security question of his victims and thus gain access to their accounts.
The judge presiding over the case handed our a ten-year term to Chaney for his actions. According to the judge, “It’s hard to fathom the mindset of a person who would accomplish all of this. These types of crimes are as pernicious and serious as physical stalking.”
Courtesy: CNET
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