Scarlett Johansson avenged: FBI arrests suspect in "Operation Hackerazzi"

The Los Angeles Times reports that the FBI has made an arrest in its investigation of celebrity phone-hacking in Hollywood. As every heterosexual male of fapping age on the internet knows, nude snapshots of Johansson made their way online not long ago. The FBI wants to plug that leak. Plug it hard.

The break comes several weeks after reports that the cellphone accounts of Scarlett Johansson and other stars had been breached.

The FBI did not name the victims in the investigation, dubbed Operation Hackerazzi. Officials scheduled a news conference later Wednesday morning to release additional information.

More: Los Angeles Times.

Scarlett Johansson poses for photographers on the catwalk before the Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer 2012 women's collection during Milan Fashion Week September 25, 2011. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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yri

I would just like to express my gratitude for the media coverage of this heinous crime, without which I might never have been aware of the pictures, which I certainly didn’t download in high resolution.
Guest

It took me a 2 second google to find:

Scarlett Johansson’s Agent:
Scott Lambert
William Morris Agency
One William Morris Place
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Just Saying.
That_Anonymous_Coward

Unleash boobs on teh interwebs, get caught fast.

Unleash hell on earth by destroying the economy, get no investigation and a bonus for using sanddpaper as lube.
http://twitter.com/piratapuia c.a.

What do you mean, yri? Are they available in hi-rez? :)
- yri
  
  I’m sure I don’t know. I don’t recall. I’m not prepared to answer at this time. I didn’t inhale. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
awjt

May the best man or woman win.
http://www.paradea.org/notes/ Teirhan

While I am not above enjoying the fruits of this hacking scandal, a part of me wonders how it is that rich, beautiful, famous women haven’t learned to be a little more discreet with pictures of their lady bits.
- Guest
  
  Do you think she became known for her burkha?
- Susan Carley Oliver
  
  Sheesh, Teirhan – what part of “hacked” do you not understand? She had nudes of herself on her own private phone. Unless you’re a hacking peeping tom, that should be discreet enough for you.
  - http://www.paradea.org/notes/ Teirhan
    
    And as sad as it is, people who spend large portions of their life in the media spotlight are going to be subjected to things like paparazzi hacking their phones to steal personal photographs. So in this particular context, being more discreet might be not having nude pictures at all, since expecting these people to bother with more obscure methods of securing their personal data, such as encryption, is a little ridiculous.
Ashley christensen

The “additional information” they are releasing, wouldn’t by happen to include more pics of her naughty bits would it?
http://www.nothinginside.net mindysan33

Does anyone else think it’s kind of odd that, while the FBI will track down the people who got and released pics of Scarlett Johannssen, more often than not, teenaged girls whose pictures they are taking of themselves, (presumable to share with one boy/girlfriend not the internets as a whole – although this is the case at times), that get out are being arrested for spreading child porn (sorry long rambly sentence, hope it made some sort of sense)? Is that just me, or is the difference here kind of weird and maybe even telling about where our society is now. And yes, I know Miss Johannssen is not a minor, but still. If she were, would she be arrested or would there be an effort to get the photos down and would she be cast as a victim in all this?
- Mister44
  
  Odd? Odd you say? Why, if investigating crimes were my job, and there was a crime involving Scarlet Johannssens boobs, you can bet your sweet bippy I’d have a whole crew of people on it.
  
  As for your other question about teenagers- that there is a new phenomenon. The big difference is with Johannssen, the images were stolen, vs a nude pic distributed and later finding its way out there. IIRC there have been cases where people involved have been charged under child porn laws, which is ridiculous. There will have to be some rewrites of those laws in the near future.
  - http://www.nothinginside.net mindysan33
    
    I think there have been cases where the girls put them up online, and get charged, and cases where the girls did it specifically for one person, and those get released by someone else, and I think the girl still got charged for it, despite the fact she did not release the picture. Yeah, rewriting of laws are needed here.
- Guest
  
  No, because we live in a victim-blaming, misogynist culture.
  - http://www.nothinginside.net mindysan33
    
    Glad it’s not just me and my paranoia….
scatterfingers

Most boring “nude” pictures in the world, ever.

Buddy deserves to be arrested just for the cocktease.
- Guest
  
  Wow. No.
- Paul Renault
  
  Boring? I beg to differ.
  
  Ms. Johansson IS callipygian.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=559733997 Stephen Olsen

I wish they hadn’t used the term Hackerazzi. It’s going to stick and make it all seem more legit.
- Guest
  
  mesh-back hats?
- jennybean42
  
  I feel the same way about the term “fapping.”
Djinn PAWN

I’m so glad that the FBI got right onto a case involving a celebrity. Now, if Bob Normal from Oklahoma reported HIS phone hacked to the FBI I’m sure they would get right on that too…

…right away. Using federal resources. In a time of debt. And fragile national security.

Good use of person-power there FBI. We’re all much safer.
- kenvhyt
  
  Of course people with fame and money get attention. That’s one way people have evolved. Deal with it. Once you get over this aspect of human nature, you’ll be pessimistic that much less.
Recluse

Have leaked nude photos or sex videos (e.g. Paris Hilton) ever HURT a celebrity’s career?? Discuss.
- CharredBarn
  
  Estelle Getty’s leaked self-pleasuring video lost her a huge spokesperson gig with AARP. True story.
Halloween_Jack

I really feel sort of sorry for any celebrity (all the way down to the D-List) that hasn’t figured out yet that you never, ever put intimate stuff like this on any device that is or can be directly connected to the internet or the phone system. If she really wanted to send nudie photos to someone special (Sean Penn?), there are about three easy steps that she could have taken (non-c0nnected camera, encryption on a non-connected computer, sent via a fake-name Gmail account) that would have prevented this. Of course, whoever she sent them to could have leaked or shown them to someone else…
vonbobo

Government of the people*, by the people*, for the people*.

*rich and famous
- kenvhyt
  
  Please. High profile gets the attention. What, do you think: the FBI solely works for the *rich and famous? GTFO.
  - vonbobo
    
    “Please. High profile gets the attention. What, do you think: the FBI solely works for the *rich and famous? GTFO. “If “high profile” gets attention, then yes, the FBI does only work for the rich and famous.Like the other poster said earlier, Joe Normal’s case of stolen pictures of his freshly waxed Ford truck probably wouldn’t even make it in the front door of the FBI.What’s your point?
    - kenvhyt
      
      My point is that the only reason why you’re hearing about this is because it’s a high profile person. Did I really have to type it out? JC. Do you also want me to type out every incident the FBI involved itself when the victim wasn’t famous?
Palomino

Maybe I’m stupid, but aren’t the images stored ON the phone? Which actual “account” was hacked that stored the images? Someone please list the process in reverse. Start with the images getting on the internet then work backwards to the time the photo was actually taken.
http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

Maybe I’m stupid, but aren’t the images stored ON the phone?

I doubt these pictures were hacked from a phone. If they were stolen then I reckon it was from a windows PC. I don’t generally run windows but a significant number of the windows computers I see are loaded with exploits. Personally think Ms Johansson released these pictures anyway.
- vonbobo
  
  I agree, I don’t see how a hacked account would allow someone to pull pics off of the phone itself.
  
  “cellphone accounts… breached”- That would mean scarjo is uploading photos from her phone to her provider’s servers. Why anyone would use this type of service from their carrier is beyond me, and even more perplexing is why someone would upload these types of pics to a third party, even if it is their carrier?
  
  My guess is that she emailed the photos from her cellphone, and the email account was later hacked (check your sent items!). I’d imagine someone at Apple would be unhappy about the headline reading as: “Scarjo’s @apple email account hacked”.
MarcVader

Fappable, dunno. But she’s a very beautiful woman and she has some very nice pixels. Breach of privacy, no doubt. Not cool for her, obviously. But the pics I’ve seen are compellingly… human and made me actually like that person more – who is just playing with her mobile, like everybody else.
ridestowe

why does it matter that they’re celebrities?