The hacker who three years ago posted racy photos of Miley Cyrus he allegedly stole from her email and MySpace accounts has crossed paths with the law again.
Josh Holly, 21, pleaded guilty in a Tennessee court yesterday (Aug. 1) to credit card fraud, for possessing about 200 stolen credit card numbers, and hacking charges related to elaborate celebrity-themed spamming schemes, the Tennessean reported.
Holly's troubles began in 2008, when, going by the screen names "TrainReq," "Rockz" and h4x," he hacked into the online accounts of the then-15-year-old Cyrus and tried to sell TMZ several provocative photos the teen star had purportedly sent to Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers.
[Miley Cyrus Sex Tape Phishing Scam Hits Facebook]
TMZ didn't want the pics, so Holly posted them online for free, according to a Wired report. Holly was never charged with hacking Cyrus' accounts, but his actions kept him on federal agents' radar.
In a 2009 affidavit obtained by Wired, Holly admitted that beginning in 2005, he used his hacking skills to make more than $110,000 from spammers by hijacking celebrity MySpace accounts — Chris Brown, Rihanna, Linkin Park and Fall Out Boy all fell victim — and rigging the pages to send spam to visitors.
For the stolen credit cards and the celebrity spamming scheme, Holly faces a maximum of 13 years in prison and $500,000 in fines. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 31.
Holly was arrested for the crimes back in January, and released on bail. He allegedly broke a condition of his release, that he not use the Internet, when he used his phone to write on Facebook that he has "strong urges" to start hacking again.
In the proceedings, Holly told Judge Aleta Trauger that he believes he is addicted to the Internet.