Illinois man pleads guilty to hacking hundreds of Snapchat accounts to steal nude photos

A 27-year-old Illinois man pleaded guilty to several charges related to a campaign of hacks involving the Snapchat accounts of about 600 women. Kyle Svara of Oswego, Illinois is facing decades in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and false statements related to child pornography. His sentencing is scheduled for May 18 and the charges carry a cumulative maximum sentence of 32 years in prison. Svara was charged in December with using social engineering attacks and other methods to gain access to the Snapchat accounts of young women and girls.  In 2020 and 2021, he posed as a representative of Snapchat and contacted 570 women demanding security access codes that were prompted by his initial attempts to break into their accounts. He used the codes to access the accounts of at least 59 women and downloaded nude or semi-nude photographs from their accounts. Svara went on to sell the images online and trade them with others on internet forums.  Svara marketed his tactics to others on the internet, offering to break into people’s Snapchat accounts for a fee.  He was hired in at least one instance by Steve Waithe
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