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'Fappening' hacker gets 18 months in US federal clapper

One of two CelebGate hackers goes down, but uploader remains at large

The 36-year-old hacker behind a massive public leak of private celebrity photos has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Ryan Collins, of Pennsylvania, was one of two suspects in the September 2014 leaks known online as the Fappening or CelebGate.

Celebrities impacted include Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Rihanna, and Avril Lavigne.

He was arrested in March and charged with hacking 50 iCloud and 72 Gmail accounts owned by Hollywood stars.

A second man, Edward Majerczyk, 28, of Illinois, was collared in July and charged with hacking 300 iCloud and Gmail accounts of which 30 belonged to Silver Screeners.

Together they hacked some 600 victims.

Both have pled guilty to the charges involving sophisticated phishing attacks that saw the pair send mails purporting to come from Apple and Google. Those efforts, which took place between November 2012 and September 2014, harvested account logins for entertainers and other prominent persons.

Collins received a lighter penalty than the five years prison initially on the table for the guilty plea.

The uploader or 'leaker' of the stolen images has not been found. ®

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