Remember that low point in internet history when the naked photos of dozens of females were leaked online to the furiously masturbating dudes on 4chan and Reddit in 2014, otherwise known as ‘The Fappening‘?
The man responsible for accessing said nudes, a Pennsylvanian-based man by the name of Ryan Collins, will today plead guilty to violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Ugh, good.
He faces up to five years prison for accessing the Apple iCloud and Gmail accounts of more than 100 victims, including female celebrities, but will likely serve far less. Both parties have agreed to prison terms of 18 months, although the judge is not bound to that recommendation.
According to the Department of Justice, Collins accessed the accounts by sending out those goddamn phishing emails:
“According to factual basis in the plea agreement, from November 2012 until the beginning of September 2014, Collins engaged in phishing scheme to obtain usernames and passwords for his victims. He sent e-mails to victims that appeared to be from Apple or Google and asked victims to provide their usernames and passwords. When the victims responded, Collins then had access to the victims’ e-mail accounts.
“After illegally accessing the e-mail accounts, Collins obtained personal information including nude photographs and videos, according to his plea agreement. In some instances, Collins would use a software program to download the entire contents of the victims’ Apple iCloud backups.”
Interestingly enough, the DOJ says he didn’t do the actual leaking. As per their report: “Investigators have not uncovered any evidence linking Collins to the actual leaks of that Collins shared or uploaded the information he obtained.”
His case is directly related to an ongoing investigation related to computers being seized from a Chicago address last year, belonging to a man called Emilio Herrera.
The subreddit where users where sharing and commenting on the photos – /r/TheFappening – became the fastest growing subreddit in Reddit history, and almost literally broke (the front page of) the internet. They came under heavy, heavy criticism for taking their sweet time in shutting it down, and if you want, you can read the very long-winded explanation why here.
Jennifer Lawrence – who, as the highest profile victim, became the ‘face’ of the story – spoke out about last year to Vanity Fair, calling it “a sex crime”.
“It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime. It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change. That’s why these Web sites are responsible,” she said. “Just the fact that somebody can be sexually exploited and violated, and the first thought that crosses somebody’s mind is to make a profit from it.”
Source: Gawker.
Photo: Jamie McCarthy / Getty.
