The Department of Justice recently announced the arrest of two men believed to be responsible for a popular hacking tool called Photofucket.
Authorities claim 39-year-old Brandon Bourret of Colorado Springs and Athanasios Andrianakis, 26, of Sunnyvale, developed and sold the aforementioned software between July 12, 2012 and July 1, 2014. Photofucket allowed users to circumvent Photobucket’s security measures and gain access to files within private folders.
Both men face one count of conspiracy, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine and one count of computer fraud, aid and abet, which carries the same five year / $250,000 penalty. Both men also face two counts of access device fraud which could result in a maximum penalty of 10 years behind bars and up to a $250,000 fine, per count.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ravenelle of the bureau’s Denver division said the arrest of the two men reflects the FBI’s commitment to investigate those who undertake activities such as this with the intent to harm a company and its customers.
Photobucket isn’t nearly as popular today as it was years ago during the Myspace era. Without Instagram or Imgur to store photos and before camera phones were decent enough for sexting, people would often use Photobucket for their NSFW sharing needs. But do to the way that Photobucket went about privatizing folders, it was relatively easy to sniff out images in a private account which is where Photofucket excelled.
The DoJ said the investigation regarding the breach and which albums were accessed is ongoing.
Image courtesy NetPhotos / Alamy via Engadget
