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Man charged in Snapchat hacking allegedly targeted Northeastern, Colby students
Federal prosecutors say the 26-year-old Illinois man phished access codes from nearly 600 women in an attempt to obtain nude images.
Federal prosecutors in Boston have charged an Illinois man with phishing Snapchat access codes from nearly 600 women in an attempt to steal nude photos he allegedly kept, sold, or traded — a scheme that investigators say included working with a Northeastern track coach convicted of accessing female athletes’ social media accounts.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley announced on Tuesday that prosecutors are charging Kyle Svara, 26, with aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, and false statements related to child pornography. Svara will make his first appearance in federal court in Boston on Feb. 4.
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According to the charging documents, from May 2020 to February 2021, Svara allegedly used social engineering to collect victim emails, phone numbers, and Snapchat usernames.
He would then allegedly use those means of identification to access victims’ Snapchat accounts, prompting the company to send account security codes to victims. Using anonymized phone numbers, Svara allegedly posed as a representative of Snap Inc. and texted more than 4,500 victims requesting those Snapchat access codes.
The documents say that approximately 570 women provided those codes. Authorities believe that Svara accessed the accounts of at least 59 women without permission and downloaded their nude or semi-nude images.
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Once he obtained the images, he allegedly sold or traded them on internet forums or in transactions with others who had hired him to hack the Snapchat accounts.
One of Svara’s co-conspirators was Steve Waithe, a former track and field coach at Northeastern University, who allegedly hired and paid Svara to hack the Snapchat accounts of women he coached or had other relationships with.
Waithe was sentenced to five years in prison in March 2024 for setting up sham social media and email accounts in an attempt to trick women, including some he coached, into sending him nude or semi-nude photos of themselves.
Svara also allegedly targeted women who resided near Plainfield, Illinois, or who were students at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
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