BY MODUPEOLUWA ADEKANYE

A New York man, Nicholas Faber, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for computer fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with his hacking of online social media accounts and theft of nude images of dozens of women.

Nicholas Faber, 25, of Rochester, pleaded guilty on Feb. 8. According to court documents, Faber admitted that from about 2017 to 2019, he worked with co-conspirator Michael Fish to access the school email accounts of dozens of female SUNY-Plattsburgh students and then used information from those school email accounts to gain access to the victims’ social media accounts.

Faber then stole and traded online with others, private nude photographs, and movies stored in the victims’ social media accounts.

As a result of Faber’s crimes, the university had to allocate money and staff to identifying compromised accounts, reviewing computer and server access logs, resetting passwords, and notifying students and parents.

Faber obtained his undergraduate degree from SUNY-Plattsburgh, graduating in 2017.

In addition to the 36-month prison sentence, United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino also imposed a three-year term of supervised release, which will start after Faber is released from prison and ordered him to pay $35,430 in restitution to SUNY-Plattsburgh and a $200 special assessment.

Fish pleaded guilty to computer hacking, aggravated identity theft, and child pornography offenses on May 19, 2020, and is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 3.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Albany Field Office with substantial assistance from the SUNY-Plattsburgh Police Department.

Deputy Chief Michael Stawasz of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua R. Rosenthal and Wayne A. Myers of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York are handling the case.