[ISN] Miley Cyrus Hacker Used Celebrity MySpace Accounts for Spamming -- Update

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/02/miley-cyrus-hac.html

By Kim Zetter 
Threat Level
Wired.com
February 23, 2009

A Tennessee teenager who was raided last October for hacking the Gmail 
account of teen star Miley Cyrus cracked multiple celebrity accounts for 
a spamming scheme that netted him at least $100,000, according to an 
affidavit filed by an FBI agent who questioned the teen. The affidavit 
was obtained by WTVF Channel 5 in Tennessee.

Josh Holly, 19, told Threat Level last October that he obtained access 
to Cyrus's Gmail account and stole personal photos from it, which he 
posted on the web. He also said he obtained access to MySpace's 
administrative panel by social engineering an employee, then reset 
account passwords for a number of MySpace users. He used the accounts 
for a spamming scheme that netted him about $50,000. Holly didn't 
provide details at the time.

But the newly released affidavit (.pdf) provides a few more hints about 
this activity. According to the document, Holly admitted to the FBI 
agent that since 2005 he had hijacked numerous celebrity internet 
accounts, which he used to conduct spamming. The affidavit doesn't 
mention MySpace specifically in connection with this activity. An 
investigation of Holly's bank records showed that between November 2007 
and July 2008, Holly received more than $110,000 from companies for 
spamming on their behalf.

The affidavit also reveals that Holly spilled the names of associates to 
the FBI.

Additionally, Holly corresponded with MySpace's director of security 
over the course of several months and provided the company with 
information regarding "MySpace system weaknesses and potential 
intrustions," according to the document. In exchange for this 
information, Holly asked the security director to reactivate his MySpace 
account, which had been suspended for "suspicious or inappropriate 
behavior."

[...]


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