Two men were arrested on April 8 on conspiracy and wire fraud charges after they breached the computer services of Colorado-based Photobucket, a company that runs an image and video hosting website, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
Brandon Bourret (39 years old), from Colorado Springs, and Athanasios Andrianakis (26 years old), from Sunnyvale, California, were arrested at their homes on charges of hacking the system and selling passwords and access to private information of the photo-sharing website in question.
District of Colorado (DoC) Attorney John Walsh and Thomas Ravenelle, special agent in charge of the Denver Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), announced that the two individuals developed and sold a software application that allowed users to bypass the privacy settings of Photobucket, which has more than 100 million registered users.
According to the statement, users of the app could secretly access and copy password-protected information and images without any permission from Photobucket users.
"It is not safe to hide behind your computer, hack into corporate servers, and line your own pockets by victimizing those who have the right to protect their privacy online," said US Attorney Walsh. "We are strongly focused on prosecuting those who steal and intentionally harm innocent Internet users."
"Unauthorized access to a secure computer system is a serious criminal offense," Ravenelle said in a statement. "The arrest of Brandon Bourret and his partner illustrates the FBI's commitment to investigating those who act with intent to harm a business and its customers."
According to the statement, Bourret and Andrianakis face conspiracy charges, which carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. They also face a computer hacking charge, which carries the same maximum penalty and a minimum of five years in prison.
