The suspects, 26-year old Athanasios Andrianakis of Sunnyvale, CA and 39-year old Brandon Bourret from Colorado Springs, were allegedly working together to hack Photobucket accounts en-masse, on the hunt for any embarrassing photos or nude pictures they could find.
According to the indictment from the Department of Justice, the duo are accused of sneaking past the security settings of Photobucket with custom software aptly called “Photofucket.” The scheme lasted between July 12th of 2012 to July 1st of last year, and netted each member of the hacking clan tens of thousands of dollars before the jig was finally up.
The tactic worked by bypassing the authorization page which would ask for a user’s credentials whenever they wanted to view the contents of a private account. The pair are charged with for both developing the application, as well as distributing it to their fellow cronies for a nominal fee.
“The conspirators used Photofucket to obtain guest passwords to access users’ password protected albums. They also transferred, or caused to be transferred, guest passwords to others who paid to use the Photofucket application,” read the DOJ’s report.
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All told, the two have racked up one count of conspiracy and one count of computer fraud, charges which could net them a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if they’re found guilty. On top of that, they also accrued two counts of device fraud, itself carrying a potential sentence of 10 years behind bars and half a million in fines paid to the DOJ.
No word yet on which albums were compromised and which were left alone, though you can follow the case as it develops using the Department’s tool here.
