Hacker Sentenced After Stealing College Students' Nude Photos From Social Media Accounts
KEY POINTS
- Nicholas Faber, 25, was sentenced to three years in prison for hacking female students' social media accounts and stealing their nudes
- Faber, who had help from a co-conspirator, traded the nudes with other people online
- He was ordered to pay the school $35,430 and go through three years of supervised release after his prison time
A 25-year-old man from Monroe County, New York was sentenced to three years in federal prison after he hacked the social media accounts of female students from his alma mater and stole their private nude photographs.
Nicholas Faber, of Rochester, was sentenced Thursday to 36 months in federal prison for computer fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with his hacking of online social media accounts and theft of nude images of dozens of women, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement released on the day of the sentencing.
The 2017 graduate from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh (SUNY-Plattsburgh) pleaded guilty on Feb. 8 to working with co-conspirator Michael Fish to access the school email accounts of dozens of female SUNY-Plattsburgh students from 2017 to 2019, according to the statement.
The two men then reportedly used those email accounts to gain access to the victims' social media accounts, where Faber stole private nude photographs and movies stored in the accounts and traded them online with other individuals.
The university allegedly had to allocate money and staff to identify compromised accounts, reviewing computer and server logs, resetting passwords and notifying students and parents due to the hacking.
U.S. District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino ordered Faber to pay $35,430 in restitution to SUNY-Plattsburgh and a $200 special assessment in addition to his sentence and imposed a three-year term of supervised release for him, which will start after he is released from prison.
Prosecutors originally sought for Faber to receive a sentence of 42 to 48 months over the hacking, newspaper The Press-Republic previously reported, citing court documents.
"A significant term of imprisonment is necessary to send a strong message that the defendant’s conduct — which will forever haunt and embarrass his victims in countless ways, including their lives as professionals, daughters, friends, wives, and mothers — is illegal, cruel, and intolerable," prosecutors were quoted as saying.
Fish pleaded guilty to computer hacking, aggravated identity theft and child pornography offenses on May 19, 2020 and is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 3, according to the DOJ statement.
The case was investigated by the FBI's Albany Field Office with the aid of the SUNY-Plattsburgh Police Department.
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