Los Angeles, Aug 31 (IANS): George Garofano, who hacked the iCloud accounts of more than 250 people, including several Hollywood celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence, was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Following his sentence, Garofano will also face three years of supervised release and 60 hours of community service. The sentencing comes eight months after the Connecticut man was charged with using fake Apple support emails to trick victims into providing their personal account information, reports variety.com.
In a submitted statement to the court, Garofano said he blamed nobody but himself, but highlighted how the felony conviction would affect him for the rest of his life.
Garofano was arrested alongside three other men involved with the hack: Emilio Herrera, Edward Majerczyk, and Ryan Collins.
All three were also sentenced to prison with Herrera receiving 16 months, Majerczyk getting nine months, and Collins 18 months.
The hack occurred in 2014 when photos of prominent celebrities appeared on image-sharing site 4chan, showing the stars nude or partially dressed. Celebrities affected by the hack include Lawrence, Kate Upton, and Kirsten Dunst.
A similar case took place in 2012 when Christopher Cheney was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after he stole personal information from the email accounts of Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera, and several other high-profile actresses.