Getty Image
Back in August of 2014, the largest celebrity phone hack ever occurred, and dozens of famous women had their private pictures leaked to the entire world, including Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and Anna Kendrick.
Ever since then, the FBI and other agencies have been hunting the people behind the hack. Today, they announced they’ve found the person ultimately responsible, and that he’s already agreed to plead guilty, per the New York Daily News.
Ryan Collins, 36, of Lancaster, Pa., agreed to plead guilty to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and unauthorized access to a protected computer.
Federal prosecutors say Collins used a phishing scheme to get illegal access to over 100 Apple and Google email accounts, many of them female celebrities.
Court filings in the case say that between November 2012 and September 2014, Collins engaged in a phishing scheme to obtain usernames and passwords for his victims — sending them e-mails to victims that appeared to be from Apple or Google and asking them to provider their usernames and passwords.
Oddly, authorities said they do not have any evidence that Collins was responsible for the dissemnation of the material, just that he hacked and downloaded the contents of the phones of the victims.
He faces between 18 months and five years in jail, although the feds are recommending a shorter sentence to the judge.