Hacker Who Published Celebrities’ Nude Photos Sentenced to Jail

In 2014,  George Garofano, who was one of four men who hacked and leaked nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and other celebrities was sentenced to eight months in federal prison, court documents show.

Garafano was accused of hacking the Apple iCloud accounts of these victims, allowing their nude photos and private information to be spread around the internet. He previously has pleaded guilty in April to unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain this information from nearly 240 accounts.

Lawrence has previously stated that the invasion of her privacy was equivalent to a sex crime, and called for tougher laws. Her rep was one of the first to pursue this, stating “This is a flagrant violation of privacy… The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence.”

Garofano played this out by sending emails that appeared to be from Apple that encouraged victims to disclose their usernames and passwords or to enter them on a third-party website, which he would check after since he was the admin. The U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden in Bridgeport to eight months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.