Hackers responsible for the Photobucket breach this year profited by selling users’ passwords and other highly sensitive data, says the Justice Department.
Brandon Bourret, 39, and fellow fraudster, Athanasios Andrianakis, 26, also developed an illicit software app which enabled black-market purchasers to bypass privacy settings and copyrights on the massive video and photo-sharing site.
Investigators in Colorado and California arrested the two men at their homes Friday, charging each with computer and access-device fraud, as well as criminal conspiracy to defraud.
The Photobucket breach they perpetrated potentially affected more than 100-million site members, so the charges the pair now face will carry stiff fines, in addition to federal prison terms of up to ten years per count.
That may seem excessive punishment for merely hacking into image files and pirating copyrighted material, but federal prosecutors believe it’s necessary to teach the tech-savvy thieves and any copycats out there a lesson.
"It is not safe to hide behind your computer, breach corporate servers and line your own pockets by victimizing those who have a right to protected privacy on the Internet," U.S. attorney John Walsh warns, in a statement released following the arrests.
@EponymousRox
