Suburban man admits hacking women’s social media accounts to steal nude photos

A Southwest suburban man faces up to 20 years in prison after admitting in federal court Wednesday that he hacked the Snapchat accounts of dozens of women to obtain their nude photos, authorities said.

Kyle Svara, 27, of Oswego then sold or traded some of those images online, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston, which prosecuted the case.

He also conspired with the former women’s track and field coach at Boston’s Northeastern University to hack the accounts of some athletes and other women he knew, prosecutors said.

Svara pleaded guilty Wednesday to aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and false statements related to child pornography, officials said. He’s scheduled to be sentenced May 18.

Authorities said that from at least May 2020 to February 2021, Svara used social engineering and other resources to collect victim emails, phone numbers and/or Snapchat usernames.

He then posed as a representative of Snap Inc. and texted more than 4,500 people requesting their Snapchat access codes. When approximately 570 women provided those codes, Svara accessed the Snapchat accounts of at least 59 of them without permission and downloaded their nude or semi-nude images, officials said.

Once he had the stolen images, Svara sold or traded them on internet forums or in transactions with others who had hired him to hack the Snapchat accounts, according to prosecutors.

Officials said Steve Waithe, the former track and field coach at Northeastern, hired Svara to hack the Snapchat accounts of women he knew. Waithe was convicted in 2023 of 12 counts of wire fraud, one count of cyberstalking and additional charges, and was sentenced to five years in prison, prosecutors said.

Svara also targeted women who resided in or around Plainfield or were students at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, according to the U.S. Attorney.

Anyone who believes they may be a victim in this case or has relevant information is asked to visit https://forms.fbi.gov/victims/snaphackvictims.