A dozen A-list celebrities and politicians have become victims of a major cyber hacking which exposed details about their financial and personal records.
The list includes Jay-Z, Beyonce, Ashton Kutcher, Mel Gibson, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton along with Washington, DC heavy weights Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI director Robert Mueller and LAPD chief Charlie Beck.
TMZ reports that the anonymous hackers posted varying levels of information about the celebs' credit history, social security numbers, mortgage payments and contact information published on a website which they left unnamed. The website also shows screen grabs of their financial statements from online banking accounts.
This isn't the first time that Hollywood stars have become victims of cyber attacks. Last December, a hacker was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he confessed to stealing nude photos from various stars including actress Scarlett Johansson.
Studios also have been victims of hacking, as The Hollywood Reporter (THR) reported last week.
"I know of major Hollywood studios that have worked on distribution rights and other negotiations with Chinese companies and have been hacked before those negotiations had been completed because the Chinese wanted their negotiation playbook," cyber-espionage expert Dmitri Alperovitch, former vp threat research at McAfee and co-founder of CrowdStrike, told THR. "The other side knows exactly what they're planning to do and will cheat and get their way in the negotiation."
Both the LAPD and the FBI are looking into this matter, states TMZ.
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
