A fourth suspect in the 2014 “Celebgate” iCloud photo hack has plead guilty to charges of computer fraud.
According to a new report, 26-year-old George Garofano was charged on Jan. 10 with utilizing a phishing scheme in order to hack into hundreds of iCloud accounts, with many belonging to celebrities.
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Garofano now joins Emilio Herrera, Edward Majerczyk and Ryan Collins among the suspects that the FBI has been able to identify as having hacked into the celebrities’ digital accounts in 2013 and 2014.
The details of this new case are similar to those of the three, in which the individuals did commit the crime but did not actually post the hacked photos online themselves. Rather, the four men are accused of trading the contents of the hacked accounts with others.
Garofano resides in Northford, Conn., but the others are from different areas, such as Chicago, Illinois and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Additionally, Page Six reports that Garofano admitted to sending fake Apple support emails in order to convince the victims to divulge their private account info.
In an emailed statement to the Hartford Courant, Garofano’s lawyer, Richard Lynch, described him as “a good person who was taken advantage of by several hackers more sophisticated than himself.”
Majerczyk was sentenced to nine months in prison, while Collins was sentenced to 18 months. Herrera is awaiting sentencing next month.
Among the celebrities affected by the 2014 hack were Kate Upton, Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, gymnast McKayla Maroney, and Kaley Cuoco.
After the hacked photos were released, many of the celebrities victimized by it took to social media to share their feelings on their invasion of privacy.
“To those of you looking at photos I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home, hope you feel great about yourselves,” Winstead wrote on Twitter. “Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this. Feeling for everyone who got hacked.”
Cuoco took a light-hearted jab at the hack, posting a blurred photo of herself on Instagram and sarcastically captioning it, “What a fun day that was, frolicking with my hubs on the beaches of Mexico! Feels like we forgot something?“
