Having a strong password is not everything, the case of Scarlett Johansson


Posted on August 18th, 2014



Chris Chaney, the man who became known for stealing pictures from Scarlett Johansson half naked, explained how he had access to the accounts of fifty stars.

In an interview with GQ magazine, he confirms that he did not use any particular technical tricks. The man is far from being a geek and had his first computer in his late twenties. He was initially amused to find the email addresses of each celebrity by sending messages to addresses randomly. Without email warning for invalid address, he knew the email address was valid.

Finding the correct password

With the right email address, he used a long process to find the password for the account. Again, no use of any software to crack the password. Chris Chaney technique was simple, find the answer to the question asked to change the password: last name of mother, birthplace or name of the pet. Easy for him to find the answers in all celebrity articles on Internet.

Chris Chaney configured the accounts so that a copy of every e-mail was sent to him. He had access to all the privacy of celebrities such as Mila Kunis or Miley Cirus. “You feel like you’ve seen something that the rest of the world wanted to see” he said. Arrested in November 2011, Chris Chaney risk premium cost for its attraction to voyeurism: sixty years in prison and two million dollars in fines.

Note: finding the answer to those password recovery questions maybe easy for somebody who knows you. Try to find specific questions that only you can answer. We still encourage you to use a strong password and use a password manager.

See our two guides about password:


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