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"Operation Hackerazzi" Come To A Close

Alisa Kim |
October 12, 2011 | 1:34 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

FBI released the name of a Florida man on Wednesday, who has been arrested for hacking into email accounts and phones of more than 50 people, including a number of celebrities like Scarlett Johansson, Christina Aguilera, and Mila Kunis.

Image courtesy of Creative Commons
Image courtesy of Creative Commons

After more than a year of investigation, federal official have arrested and charged Christopher Chaney with 26 counts of identity theft and hacking, according to NBC LA. If convicted on all counts, Chaney will face 121 years in federal prison.

The 35-year-old is also facing charges for accessing protected computers without authorizations and wiretapping.

Officials say that Chaney would use public information to access email accounts of his alleged victims, and then access computers and cell phones under the control of his victims.

For celebrities, like Johansson, Aguilera and Kunis, private information and photos were leaked, and for some-- nude photos. Johansson, his latest celebrity-victim, had nude photos of herself from her phone released on to the internet, and asked the FBI to become involved.

TMZ also reports that law enforcement sources said that “Chaney allegedly acted alone, and got no money for his alleged misdeeds -- rather, he did it for the thrill.”

Chaney used different Aliases to access information during the hackings, including trainreqsuckswhat, anongrrl, and jaxjaguars911.

According to CNN, the investigation, dubbed “Operation Hackerazzi” by the FBI's Los Angeles office, aimed to look into computer intrusions targeting individuals associated with the entertainment industry.

Reach reporter Alisa Kim here.

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