Hacker involved in 'Celebgate' iCloud intrusion sentenced to prison

Another hacker has been sentenced to prison for their part in a phishing scheme that yielded access to the private iCloud accounts of Hollywood celebrities, an incident referred to as "Celebgate."

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut, George Garofano, 26, was on Wednesday sentenced to eight months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for instigating a phishing attack on more than 200 iCloud accounts. Victims of the hack included members of the entertainment industry, as well as non-celebrities living in Connecticut.

In court, Garofano admitted to participating in a phishing scheme from April 2013 through October 2014, soliciting for usernames and passwords in email correspondence that appeared to be from an official Apple security account. Targets were either asked to provide their information directly or to input the sensitive data on a third-party website.

Garofano used the credentials he obtained to gain unauthorized access to about 240 iCloud accounts, where he purloined private, and sometimes sensitive, data including photos and video. The hacker also traded usernames and passwords, as well as gathered material, with other individuals.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California filed charges against Garofano in January and the case was subsequently transferred to the District of Connecticut. Garofano pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information in April.

In 2014, a cache of private media pulled from the iCloud and Google accounts of prominent public figures circulated through the dark web and ultimately saw wide distribution via file sharing protocols like BitTorrent.

Media reports at the time incorrectly blamed the alleged leak on an iCloud data breach, but Apple quickly denied those claims. A subsequent federal investigation revealed a small band of hackers was responsible for the initial data theft, largely accomplished through phishing and spear phishing schemes.

Garofano is the latest "Celebgate" offender to see prison time. Last year, an Illinois man was sentenced to 9 months in prison for a related phishing attack targeting more than 300 iCloud and Gmail accounts. Prior to that, a Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for accessing 50 iCloud accounts and 72 Gmail accounts in 2016.

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22 Comments

claire1 510 comments · 6 Years

About 6 years ago

And the android slaves will still LIE and say iCloud was hacked while handing their personal data to google......(and ignoring the fact more than iCloud was "hacked" including Google Drive)

ericthehalfbee 4489 comments · 13 Years

claire1 said:

And the android slaves will still LIE and say iCloud was hacked while handing their personal data to google......(and ignoring the fact more than iCloud was "hacked" including Google Drive)

I still see idiots spouting this. They reference that “hacker” who claimed you could brute force iCloud passwords. When several people tried to duplicate his method and found it didn’t work, he simply replied “Well, it used to work so Apple must have fixed it”. Never mind the fact he provided zero proof that it ever worked.

Hacker discovers one of the most newsworthy exploits in recent memory, doesn’t document any of it, and just expects people to take his word for it. Apparently a lot of gullible (and frankly, stupid) people did.

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

claire1 said:

And the android slaves will still LIE and say iCloud was hacked while handing their personal data to google......(and ignoring the fact more than iCloud was "hacked" including Google Drive)

It’s the human condition. We just see it more when it comes to the tech world. People develop attitudes and opinions that they protect viciously, rejecting facts or evidence that contradict their settled on points of view. We see it whenever an article appears regarding carriers like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint. The comment thread is immediately populated by those with any kind of axe to grind against a carrier they have determined to have treated them badly or unfairly. Take the anti-science crowd who literally makes crap up to explain their take on settled scientific theory. Just look at all the “Einstein was wrong and I’m right” bullshit that permeates the Internet. Or take the religious literal zealots who claim that fossils were put there by Satan to fool mankind into thinking the world is much older than the Bible says it is. You can’t have a discussion with that kind of thinking so why even try. So ignore the Android “slaves”as you call them because they are who they are. Apple hatred is a cottage industry and always has been. You can’t fight it because it’s so ignorant. Apple has managed to become the most influential and dominant tech company on the planet by ignoring the haters. You should too.

lkrupp said:

claire1 said:

And the android slaves will still LIE and say iCloud was hacked while handing their personal data to google......(and ignoring the fact more than iCloud was "hacked" including Google Drive)

It’s the human condition. We just see it more when it comes to the tech world. People develop attitudes and opinions that they protect viciously, rejecting facts or evidence that contradict their settled on points of view. We see it whenever an article appears regarding carriers like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint. The comment thread is immediately populated by those with any kind of axe to grind against a carrier they have determined to have treated them badly or unfairly. Take the anti-science crowd who literally makes crap up to explain their take on settled scientific theory. Just look at all the “Einstein was wrong and I’m right” bullshit that permeates the Internet. Or take the religious literal zealots who claim that fossils were put there by Satan to fool mankind into thinking the world is much older than the Bible says it is. You can’t have a discussion with that kind of thinking so why even try. So ignore the Android “slaves”as you call them because they are who they are. Apple hatred is a cottage industry and always has been. You can’t fight it because it’s so ignorant. Apple has managed to become the most influential and dominant tech company on the planet by ignoring the haters. You should too.

I believe in God but don't deny science.

Good advice about ignoring the haters but stupidity gets to the core of me.

And I call them "slaves" because I was sick of them calling people who buy REAL iPhones "sheep" even though Apple has a small marketing budget for their size. "Slaves" because even after telling them they're the product and their data is sold for profit, they'll still defend their master.

MacPro 19838 comments · 18 Years

claire1 said:

And the android slaves will still LIE and say iCloud was hacked while handing their personal data to google......(and ignoring the fact more than iCloud was "hacked" including Google Drive)

Hacked isn't even relevant, they were phished I would assume.