FBI agents stormed a home in Chicago last fall and seized several computers, cell phones and storage drives in connection with the investigation into the hacking and leaking of dozens of celebrities’ private nude photos, according to a warrant unsealed this week.
The FBI tracked the source of the celebrity hacking to an IP address linked to Emilio Herrera, who was the target of the federal warrant that was carried out Oct. 16, just over one month after photos of celebrities such as Kate Upton and Jennifer Lawrence were posted online. It quickly became clear that the celebrities’ iCloud accounts had been compromised, and Apple had begun looking into the incident.
The IP address linked to Herrera was used to access 572 individual iCloud accounts, many of which “were accounts of celebrities who had photos leaked online,” according to the warrant application, which was first obtained by Gawker. Those accounts were accessed 3,263 times from Herrera’s IP address.
Herrera is just one of several people under investigation and the FBI has carried out several other searches across the country in connection with the celebrity hack, a law enforcement official told CNN on Wednesday.
“These are a series of unconnected guys conducting relatively unsophisticated hacking,” the official said, adding that the individuals were apparently part of a network online where they traded pictures.
The FBI identifies eight celebrities whose accounts were accessed from Herrera’s IP address, but only by their initials: “A.S., C.H., H.S., J.M., O.W., A.K., E.B., and A.H.”
Photos of Abigail Spencer, Christina Hendricks, Hope Solo, Jennette McCurdy, Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, Emily Browning, and Amber Heard were all leaked online.
The FBI agents petitioned for the warrant noting that there was “probable cause to believe that … evidence and instrumentalities relating to this criminal conduct … will be found in the Subject Premises.”
FBI agents seized two desktop computers, a laptop, two cell phones, a Kindle Fire, an MP3 player, two micro-SD cards and two floppy disks.
The FBI’s Cybercrimes Unit in Los Angeles is carrying out the investigation.
Herrera is 30 and lives with his parents at the Chicago home that was searched by federal investigators in October, according to public records. Several calls to a phone number associated with that address went unanswered Wednesday.