A second hacker in the 2014 hacking scandal known as "Celebgate" pled guilty on Friday.
Edward Majerczyk, a 28-year-old Chicago man, admitted that he illegally got into over 300 iCloud and Gmail accounts, according to Variety. He then downloaded "sensitive and private photographs and videos."
Ryan Collins pled guilty in March of this year to similar charges relating to the scandal, although the two men operated independently. Collins admitted to getting personal information from Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and Kirsten Dunst, among others.
Majerczyk, who has not been connected to the actual leaks of the celebrity photos he stole, faces up to five years in prison. However, the plea agreement hints that he will likely serve between six and twelve months. Collins has not yet been sentenced either, but prosecutors are asking for him to serve 18 months.
“This defendant not only hacked into e-mail accounts — he hacked into his victims’ private lives, causing embarrassment and lasting harm,” Deirdre Fike, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said in a statement. “As most of us use devices containing private information, cases like this remind us to protect our data. Members of society whose information is in demand can be even more vulnerable, and directly targeted.”
The Celebgate scandal made worldwide news when it broke in 2014, and even garnered its own Wikipedia entry. Almost 500 photos of celebrities — most of them of women, and many nude — were posted on 4chan, and shared widely from there.
