Accomplice pleads guilty in SUNY Plattsburgh social media hacking case

PLATTSBURGH | A Rochester man has pleaded guilty to federal computer fraud charges for his role in a social-media hacking scheme that victimized dozens of female college students. Nicholas Faber has also agreed to pay SUNY Plattsburgh roughly $35,000 in restitution for the college's costs in investigating the two-year-long crimes involving hacked student emails and social media accounts. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York Faber, 25, pleaded guilty Feb. 8 to charges of computer fraud, computer intrusion causing damage, and aggravated identity theft and admitted his role in the hacking scheme that began in 2017 when he graduated from Plattsburgh State. Faber and another former student, Michael Fish, accessed the university email accounts of dozens of women and used information from those emails to access their social media accounts. The pair then stole, traded, and sold nude photographs and videos from the victims' social media accounts, court documents said. Fish, also now 25, pleaded guilty to similar federal crimes in May, including possession of child pornography. Fish also reportedly sold the private photos in collages of sexually explicit personal photos with formal graduation photos of the victims, which further exploited some victims and sorority members, federal officials have said. While he also recruited others to help in the hacking scheme, Fish reportedly tried to break into at least two dozen accounts of victims he knew and was able to access numerous accounts without the victims knowing. Fish is expected to be sentenced for his crimes March 19. Faber will be sentenced June 9 and now faces two to 12 years in prison, up to $250,000 in fines, and three years of supervised release.

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Accomplice pleads guilty in SUNY Plattsburgh social media hacking case

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