A 21-year-old woman has been charged for the hacking and leaking of the private pictures of popular American celebrity Pop singer and actress, Selena Gomez.
Susan Atrach from Ridgerfield Park, New Jersey, has been slammed with 11 felony counts charge which includes; 1 count of gaining unauthorised access to a computer and taking files without permission, 5 counts of committing fraud and obtaining money/data/property illegally using the compromised computer. Five counts of identity theft and leaking of the personal data on the Internet.
Atrach is also accused of sharing personal file of Ms. Gomez with her friends.
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According to a press release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, Atrach on several occasions hacked into the email accounts of Ms. Gomez and her associate. Atrach is accused of having had unauthorised access to the email accounts from June 2015 to February 2018 during which she stole Ms. Gomez personal data and leaked several of them online.
"The defendant is accused of accessing the vcictim's account several times from June 2015 through February 2016. She then allegedly obtained stored media that she posted online ans shared with other people," Deputy District Attorney Ben Forer of the Cyber Crime Division who is the prosecutor of the case said.
You might be wondering how Ms. Selena Gomez's Apple iCloud and Yahoo email account got compromised. Well, Atrach hacked the accounts by using available information about the Pop star which were online to answer the secret questions attached to the accounts.
If eventually found guilty, Atrach will be facing a maximum of 6 years and 8 months sentence. Bail will be at the rate of $250,000. The accused will be arraigned before the magistrate on the 27th of August.
We always advise online account users to use strong passwords and not the one that can be easily guessed. Another way to fortify our login is to enable two-factor authentication on our accounts. Finally, avoid clicking on suspicious links or opening attachments that you aren't sure of their source.