A Florida man was charged with hacking into celebrity email accounts in a computer invasion scheme that led to the posting of private and revealing information, including nude photos of actress Scarlett Johansson, on the Internet, federal authorities said Wednesday.
Christopher Chaney, 35, of Jacksonville, was arrested without incident as part of a yearlong investigation of celebrity hacking that authorities dubbed “Operation Hackerazzi.”
There were more than 50 victims in the case, including Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera and actress Renee Olstead, authorities said. Others were named only by initials and investigators wouldn’t disclose if they were famous, but said victims named in the indictment agreed to have their identities made public.
“It helps get out the message that cyber-hacking is a real threat,” U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte said of the case, describing those who engage in such activity as “scum.”
Chaney made his initial court appearance in a Florida courtroom Wednesday and was released on $ 10,000 bond. He was charged with 26 counts of identity theft, unauthorized access to a protected computer and wiretapping. If convicted, he faces up to 121 years in prison. An email left for Assistant Federal Public Defender Maurice Grant II was not immediately returned.
Celebrities and people in the news have long been targets of privacy invasion but concerns have redoubled in the Internet age.
In Britain, publisher Rupert Murdoch closed down the News of the World this year after contentions that the tabloid routinely hacked into people’s phones in the hunt for exclusive stories. The paper, which had published for 168 years, faced allegations of systematically intercepting private voicemail of those in the news — including a teenage murder victim.
Authorities said Chaney was responsible for stealing nude photos taken by Johansson herself and were later posted on the Internet. Chaney offered some material to celebrity blog sites but there is…
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