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Hollywood Hacker Arrested

Jennifer Schultz |
October 12, 2011 | 12:23 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

Scarlett Johansson (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Scarlett Johansson (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Operation Hackerazzi may have come to a close after almost a year, much to the relief of many starlettes.

The FBI arrested a Florida man Wednesday morning on hacking charges, and they may have caught the man responsible for hacking into many celebrities’ email accounts.

The agency believes this is the hacker responsible for nude photo scandals of celebrities including Scarlett Johansson and Vanessa Hudgens.

The hacker supposedly claimed 50 victims through his activities. If the celebrity hackings are all connected, his victims would include Johansson, Hudgens, Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Alba, Natalie Portman and more.

Though it was initially reported that the photos were released through phone hackings, Forbes reports this hacker worked through email, hacking in to Google, Apple and Yahoo accounts and forwarding copies of the message to himself.

According to Forbes, the hacker is charged with 25 counts of identity theft, unauthorized access and unauthorized damage to a protected computer. 

The arrest comes in the wake of a major hacking scandal in Britain, where “The News of the Word” ceased publication after it came to light they hacked into phones to find exclusive stories.

Reach writer Jennifer Schultz here, and follow her on Twitter here.

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