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An Oregon, man who admitted hacking and getting 448 usernames and passwords for about 363-e-mail accounts, including victims who were members of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, \u00a0was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison, officials announced.<\/span><\/p>\n By illegally accessing the e-mail accounts, \u00a0Andrew Helton<\/strong> obtained 161 sexually explicit, nude and\/or partially nude images of approximately 13 victims, some of whom were celebrities, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n U. S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt also ordered Helton to pay a $3,000 fine, according to authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cFor over two years, Helton targeted unsuspecting victims with phishing e-mails that gave him full access to their private e-mail accounts,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker. \u201cHe systematically searched for and stole intimate images and stored them in his own computer for personal use, which meant the victims continued to suffer as a result of his voyeurism. Helton’s crime was a deep invasion of privacy that caused real harm.”<\/span><\/p>\n In the scheme, Helton sent fraudulent e-mails that resembled legitimate e-mails from Apple or Google to hundreds of victims asking them to \u201cverify\u201d their accounts. <\/span><\/p>\n Helton sent the phishing e-mails to acquaintances, strangers, and celebrities living in the Los Angeles area. <\/span><\/p>\n When victims clicked on the link provided, they were taken to bogus websites resembling Apple or Google log-in pages, where they were prompted to enter their usernames and passwords. After that, Helton had full access to their accounts.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After gaining access to the victims\u2019 accounts, Helton scoured their e-mails and found 161 sexually explicit, nude and\/or partially nude images of approximately 13 victims, which included some celebrities. Helton saved these images to his personal computer.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhether a victim of cyber intrusion is a celebrity or not, the lasting distress resulting from the privacy violation is the same,\u201d said Deirdre Fike, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI\u2019s Los Angeles Field Office. \u201cThe FBI reminds users of computers and personal devices to report suspicious activity toic3.gov and to protect their private information by verifying the authenticity of websites before providing personal data online.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Helton was ordered to begin serving his prison sentence by Oct. 11.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The FBI investigated this case.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Oregon, man who admitted hacking and getting 448 usernames and passwords for about 363-e-mail accounts, including victims who were members of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison, officials announced.![\"Department](\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Department-of-Justice-300x300.png\")
Helton, 29, of Portland, plead guilty to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, specifically a charge of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nBy illegally accessing the e-mail accounts, Andrew Helton obtained 161 sexually explicit, nude and\/or partially nude images of approximately 13 victims, some of whom were celebrities, officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[2820,2886,266],"class_list":["post-25466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-celebgate","tag-emails","tag-hacking"],"yoast_head":"\n