A New York man pleaded guilty Monday to computer fraud and aggravated identity theft related to his hacking of online social media accounts and theft of nude images of dozens of female victims.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid, Acting U.S. Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon of the Northern District of New York, Special Agent in Charge Thomas F. Relford of the FBI’s Albany Field Office and State University of New York (SUNY)-Plattsburgh Police Chief Patrick Rascoe made the announcement.
Nicholas Faber, 25, of Rochester, pleaded guilty to one count of computer intrusion causing damage and one count of aggravated identity theft.
As part of his guilty plea, Faber admitted that from about 2017 to 2019, he worked with co-conspirator Michael Fish to access the school email accounts of dozens of female college students and then used information from those school email accounts to gain access to the victims’ social media accounts. Faber then stole, and traded online with others, private nude photographs and movies stored in the victims’ social media accounts. Also, as a result of Faber’s crimes, the university had to allocate money and staff to identifying compromised accounts, reviewing computer and server access logs, resetting passwords, and notifying students and parents.
Faber obtained his undergraduate degree from SUNY-Plattsburgh, graduating in 2017.
Faber has also agreed to pay $35,430 in restitution to SUNY-Plattsburgh and is scheduled to be sentenced June 9. Fish pleaded guilty to computer hacking, aggravated identity theft and child pornography offenses, and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 19.
This case was investigated by the FBI with substantial assistance from the SUNY-Plattsburgh Police Department. Deputy Chief Michael Stawasz from the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Wayne A. Myers and Joshua R. Rosenthal are prosecuting the case.
Source: Department of Justice