14 DAY TRIAL // A Tennessee man who previously took credit for leaking indecent photos of Miley Cyrus in 2008 agreed to plead guilty to charges of credit card fraud and computer hacking.
Joshua Holly, 21, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was arrested and charged with the crimes back in January. He was released on bail, but ordered not to use the Internet, a condition which he allegedly broke by writing on Facebook that he has strong urges to hack again.
Holly, who used multiple handles online, including TrainReq, Rockz and h4x, boasted in 2008 that he hacked into Miley Cyrus' Gmail account where he found intimate photos of the then 15-year-old actress.
After initially trying to sell the photographs to celebrity news websites without success, Holly published them freely on the Internet. The photos have been widely circulated and were even used as lure for scams and cyber attacks.
The incident led to the FBI raiding Holly's home in October 2008 and seizing his computer, iPhone and other storage media. An analysis of the data found on this devices revealed that Holly was in the possession of details of 200 credit cards that had been used for fraud.
Further analysis of chat logs showed that he bought the credit card information from others and he agreed to use it for purchases on their behalf.
The Tennessean newspaper reports that Holly pleaded guilty to access device fraud and commercial electronic mail message fraud in Nashville U.S. District Court on Monday. He faces a maximum prison sentence of 13 years and a fine of $500,000.
At the hearing he told judge Aleta A. Trauger that he is addicted to the Internet. "You just let all your friends know you have no access to the Internet. This is all for your own good anyway," Trauger said.