Celebrity Nude Photo Leak: Gabrielle Union, Others Fight Back As Hacker Faces Big Prison Time

The celebrity nude photo leaks that seem to be originating from a hacker in some shadowy corner of the internet and finding their way to 4chan and other sites can only end one way, legal experts say — with an arrest and a long prison sentence for the perpetrator.

The nude photo leaks that started in late August, targeting big names like Kate Upton and Jennifer Lawrence, have continued on this month, with new racy pictures leaked of Rihanna, Gabrielle Union, Hayden Panettiere, and Mary-Kate Olson.

But the more images that come out, the greater the chances that FBI agents will be able to track down the person (or people) responsible for flooding the internet with nude celebrity photos, experts say.

“(The FBI) will mostly likely catch them, because they’re relatively easy to catch and many have already been caught,” says Philip Lieberman, CEO of Lieberman Software, which builds cyber defense technology for governments and corporations, in an interview with USA Today. “There will be a perp walk, because they want to send a message. And the celebrities will have their indignant outrage and publicity they could never have paid for.”

This week, a new wave of celebrity nude photos came out, targeting women including Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Hudgens, Jenny McCarthy, Kate Bosworth, Avril Lavigne and Lake Bell.
Many have already planned legal action, a move that Jennifer Lawrence took immediately when her nude photos leaked. Union’s legal team has already been working with the FBI, she said in a statement over the weekend to TMZ.

“It has come to our attention that our private moments, that were shared and deleted solely between my husband and myself, have been leaked by some vultures,” the statement said. “I can’t help but to be reminded that since the dawn of time women and children, specifically women of color, have been victimized, and the power over their own bodies taken from them. These atrocities against women and children continue worldwide.”

The celebrity nude photo hacker will likely face big prison time once apprehended. Federal authorities have already shown that they take digital property theft very seriously, especially in cases involving celebrities. In 2012, authorities in Florida sentenced 35-year-old Christopher Chaney to 10 years in prison for obtaining and releasing pictures of a number of celebrities including Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis.