The hacker was arrested in 2021 for breaching Apple iCloud accounts and stealing more than 620,000 private images and 9,000 videos of young females.
Hao Kuo Chi, a 41-year-old hacker from California, has been sentenced to nine years in prison. The sentence was announced on Thursday for breaching iCloud accounts, said the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Florida.
US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle sentenced Hao Kuo Chi to nine years in federal prison on conspiracy and computer fraud charges. The accused pleaded guilty in October 2021.
Background Story
As Hackread.com previously reported, Chi stole people’s nude videos and photos of young females and shared them with conspirators. He used the online moniker “icloudripper4you” to hack thousands of iCloud accounts. He was arrested for breaching Apple iCloud accounts and stealing more than 620,000 private images and 9,000 videos of young females.
The La Puente, California resident admitted impersonating Apple customer support staff and carrying out iCloud phishing scams to trick the victims into giving away their Apple IDs and passwords.
The “Terror” Campaign
In the DoJ’s press release, authorities referred to Chi’s illicit activities as a terror campaign, sharing nude images/videos of innocent users on his website and calling the stolen content his “wins.” Furthermore, he illegally hacked into iCloud accounts of approximately 4700 individuals and shared the content with conspirators on 300 occasions.
US Attorney Roger Handberg stated that Chi victimized “hundreds of women across the country” and made them fearful for their reputation and safety because some conspirators leaked those images online.
“This man led a terror campaign from his computer, causing fear and distress to hundreds of victims. The FBI is committed to protecting the American people by exposing these cybercriminals and bringing them to justice.”
David Walker, FBI Tampa Division Special Agent in Charge.
Court documents reveal that Chi’s campaign was spread over Anon-IB for several years. This now-defunct website served as an image-sharing platform where users were encouraged to post sexually explicit and nude photos.
Chi used an undisclosed foreign, end-to-end encrypted email service for sharing images with his conspirators. When Anon-IB was active, Chi collected 3.5TB of data from 500 victims, which he stored in physical devices and iCloud.
