Hacker arrested trying to sell stolen scripts of popular TV shows

This week in New York, the hacker Alonzo Knowles was arrested trying to sell the personal data of Hollywood stars and famous athletes to a radio show host and a collection of scripts for movies and TV series that have not yet been released. 23-year-old Knowles, who hails from the Bahamas, received all this information through hacking into accounts of stars and people close to them.

Judging by the available information about this case, Knowles calculated people familiar and close to stars, then with the help of social engineering and phishing attacks got access to their computers and accounts in various services. He combed computers and accounts for sensitive information, after which he used them as a means to access the accounts of the stars themselves.
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Receiving messages allegedly from their friends, Hollywood actors and actresses easily succumbed to deception, with the result that their personal information also fell within the hacker's reach.

According to some information, Knowles got access to several scenarios of films and episodes of serials, in which these actors should be shot or already taken, as well as to their private photos, videos and various personal information.

The investigation does not disclose information about which actors and athletes were the victims of the hacker, and the scenarios of which series he seized. According to unverified information, Knowles turned out the scenarios of the first six episodes of the next season of the “very popular TV series”, as well as personal data and private photos and videos of about 130 famous personalities.

Then Knowles, deciding to make money on his activities, contacted the host of one of the popular radio shows in New York, and showed him the possession of this information by sending screenshots of open pdf-files containing scripts.

The host of the show contacted the producer of the "popular television series", and he turned to the competent authorities. While working undercover, an employee of the US Interior Ministry made an appointment with Knowles and the terms of the deal - selling 15 scenarios and four social security numbers owned by hacked victims. For this information, the hacker wanted to receive $ 80,000 - and received, apparently, a considerable period of time.

Hackers are constantly trying to get to personal data and private photos and videos of various celebrities. Sometimes they succeed: in 2012, a hacker who hacked accounts Scarlet Johansson, Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera and others, received 10 years in prison .

In August 2014, as a result of the events that received the nicknames “Celebgate” and “The Fappening”, entire collections of private photos of celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Kate Upton, Mary Winstead, Kirsten Dunst, Kayle Cuco and others. The investigation of this case is still leading the FBI. Some claim that the leak was due to hacking of iCloud cloud storage, although Apple denies this.