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An Illinois man, Kyle Svara, was sentenced to 76 months in prison and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to identity theft and wire fraud in a scheme that compromised hundreds of Snapchat accounts belonging primarily to women. Prosecutors said Svara impersonated Snap Inc. representatives, used anonymized phone numbers, and socially engineered victims into revealing Snapchat access codes between May 2020 and February 2021, targeting more than 4,500 people and unlawfully accessing about 517 accounts.
Authorities said Svara stole nude or semi-nude images from more than 750 women, enabled two-factor authentication on some accounts to lock victims out, and advertised account-hacking services online while communicating with clients over Kik. Investigators also found child sexual abuse material in his Mega account and said he collected, distributed, and solicited CSAM; court records further tied his services to former Northeastern University coach Steve Waithe, who was previously sentenced for hiring Svara to hack students’ Snapchat accounts.
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Kyle Svara was sentenced to 76 months in prison and three years of supervised release for hacking Snapchat accounts belonging to more than 750 women and stealing nude or semi-nude photos. Reporting also noted investigators found child sexual abuse material in his Mega account and linked him to account-hacking services advertised online.
Between May 2020 and February 2021, Kyle Svara used social engineering while impersonating Snap Inc. representatives and anonymized phone numbers to phish Snapchat access codes. Prosecutors said he targeted more than 4,500 victims, unlawfully accessed about 517 women’s accounts, stole intimate images, and enabled two-factor authentication to lock victims out.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Illinois man Kyle Svara pleaded guilty to identity theft and wire fraud charges tied to the Snapchat account hacking scheme. The plea was disclosed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
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An Illinois man, **Kyle Svara**, pleaded guilty in federal court to charges tied to a campaign targeting roughly **570–600 women** whose *Snapchat* accounts were accessed to steal nude or semi-nude images. Reporting indicates Svara used **social engineering**—impersonating Snapchat/Snap representatives and soliciting **security access codes** via text—to harvest credentials at scale (including outreach to thousands of targets), then unlawfully accessed at least **59 accounts** to download private photos that he **kept, sold, or traded** online. He also advertised paid account-compromise “services” on online platforms and directed prospective clients to contact him via the encrypted messaging app **Kik**. Court reporting also links Svara’s activity to **Steve Waithe**, a former Northeastern University track and field coach who hired Svara to compromise accounts of students and athletes; Waithe was previously convicted and sentenced to prison for related cyber-enabled abuse. Svara additionally targeted victims in **Plainfield, Illinois**, and at **Colby College** in Maine, and he faces charges including **aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, computer fraud, and false statements** tied to a child pornography-related investigation; U.S. authorities have encouraged potential victims to come forward. Separately, an unrelated case in New York described the arrest of an alleged **764** affiliate on **CSAM** charges, reflecting broader law-enforcement activity against that violent extremist network but not connected to the Snapchat hacking case.
Jun 29, 2026
UK authorities said Justin Swaddle, a 20-year-old from Leeds linked to the online collective known as **The Com**, was sentenced to two years in prison for blackmail, sextortion, and child sexual abuse offences against **117 female victims worldwide**. Investigators said Swaddle, who offended while aged 17, used aliases including **"Epstein," "Rugen," and "Moscow"** on Snapchat, Telegram, and Discord to groom and coerce girls aged 13 to 17 into producing sexual images and videos, and in some cases into acts of self-harm, while threatening to expose them to parents or schools. The UK National Crime Agency said it took over the investigation in January 2024 and recovered evidence from seized devices showing indecent images of children, extortion, and material depicting victims carving his aliases into their skin. Eight victims were identified in the UK, with additional victims located through cooperation with law enforcement in the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway, and New Zealand. Swaddle pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court and was also made subject to a **10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order** and placement on the **Sex Offenders Register**, as authorities highlighted the case as part of wider scrutiny of The Com over sextortion, child exploitation, and related cyber-enabled abuse.
Aug 10, 2026
Former U.S. Army soldier Cameron John Wagenius, known online as `kiberphant0m`, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $294,978 in restitution for hacking, data theft and extortion targeting telecommunications companies and other organizations. Prosecutors said Wagenius and co-conspirators obtained credentials for at least 10 victims between April 2023 and December 2024, stole and sold sensitive data, demanded ransoms, and used records in SIM-swapping fraud. He pleaded guilty to wire-fraud conspiracy, computer-fraud-related extortion, aggravated identity theft, and unlawful transfers of confidential phone records. While stationed at Fort Cavazos, Wagenius used the credential-stealing tool SSH Brute, which he helped develop, and collaborated with Connor Moucka and alleged co-conspirator John Erin Binns. The operation was tied to the Snowflake customer-data theft wave, in which stolen credentials and accounts lacking multifactor authentication enabled theft of billions of records, including call and text metadata affecting more than 100 million AT&T customers. AT&T paid a $370,000 Bitcoin ransom; the group later posted purported call logs for Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and alleged NSA schematics. Wagenius also allegedly tried to sell stolen data to a foreign intelligence service and, while awaiting sentencing, sought exploit and escape-related guidance through other inmates' email accounts; authorities said they found no evidence he compromised Bureau of Prisons systems.
Sep 28, 2026