The man who hacked Hollywood

Out of curiosity, 35-year-old American Christopher Chaney (Christopher Chaney) hacked the mailboxes of Hollywood stars and read their correspondence for more than two years in 2008-2011, watched personal photos and watched the filming of new films.

In March 2012, Cheney was convicted on nine counts. The investigation revealed that he had access to postal correspondence of more than 50 actresses, actors and employees of Hollywood studios and showbiz stars. Among the victims - Scarlett Johansson, Vanessa Hudgens, Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and others. GQ magazine interviewed this pseudo-hacker, who now faces up to 60 years in prison.

Every morning, Cheney began by picking up a mountain of about 800 fresh letters. Although he will spend the near future in prison, but today this modest man is the most knowledgeable man in the world who knows absolutely all the secrets behind the scenes of the movie business.
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Christopher Cheney said that he himself does not consider himself an advanced computer user. Quite the contrary, he bought a computer just a few years before he began his “hacker” activity. He selected the passwords to the mailboxes of the stars manually, methodically trying different answers to the secret question. For example, it was well known that the hacker who hacked into Paris Hilton’s phone used the answer to the “secret” question about the name of a pet — this answer was not hard to find on the Internet.

Christopher Cheney found out the maiden names of the parents of Hollywood stars in the telephone directories and address books at the parents' place of residence or in their former place of residence if they had already died. Almost always someone else with the same last name remained alive in the town.

Cheney did not profess mercenary motives. Although he poured some mined photos into the yellow press, he did it exclusively under the pressure of the paparazzi, who persuaded him to provide evidence. Simply put, they took on weakly. In general, he was engaged in espionage solely out of boredom, depression, and in order to satisfy his own curiosity. By 2008, he had been unemployed for two years, smoking “weed” and living in his grandmother’s house, in a small room where the bed, TV, Fight Club poster and a large collection of DVDs were barely placed. He simply had nothing to do.

Cheney said that he traced the process of filming several films in detail, including the sci-fi film “Time” (In Time, 2011), starting with a script similar to the actors ’negotiations (for example, the protagonist’s agent spent several weeks negotiating with producers how much money it would cost to expose the lower part of the back a few centimeters below the back) and to choose the location of the filming of each scene. He learned that there is a location scout profession - agents who travel around the country and abroad and are looking for suitable places to shoot each scene, then send the photos to the director.

After penetrating someone else's mailbox, Christopher redirected to his email. Then I read the mail with interest, writing down in the Word file the mailing addresses of all respondents that I noticed.



Christopher Cheney does not regret that the FBI calculated him (it was not difficult at all). During the arrest, he told the agents with relief: finally you came, otherwise I could not stop. In the end, the prison cell is not too different in terms of living conditions from his old room.

But for many more years, Cheney will remain the most knowledgeable spy and keeper of Hollywood secrets. He still keeps secret some facts that he learned from the postal correspondence, and does not name names.

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