Suburban man gets 5-year sentence for hacking social media accounts to steal nude photos

A suburban man has been sentenced to more than six years in prison on charges he hacked the social media accounts of dozens of women to steal nude photos that he then kept, sold, or traded on the internet.

Kyle Svara, 27, of Oswego, was sentenced last week by a federal judge in Boston, where he previously pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and false statements related to child pornography, authorities said.

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

He then used that information to text more than 4,500 victims while posing as a Snap Inc. representative and request account access codes, prosecutors said. When approximately 570 women provided codes, Svara accessed their Snapchat accounts to download nude or semi-nude images.

Svara then sold or traded the images on internet forums or in transactions with others who had hired him to hack the Snapchat accounts, prosecutors said.

Among his co-conspirators was Steve Waithe, a former track and field coach at Northeastern University in Boston, prosecutors said. Waithe hired Svara to hack the Snapchat accounts of women he coached or had other relationships with, according to prosecutors. Waithe was convicted of more than a dozen charges and sentenced to five years in prison, authorities said.

Svara also lied to investigators on two occasions, claiming he had no interest in child sexual abuse material. Investigators later determined that he possessed over 500 photos and 600 videos of child sexual abuse material, including some involving children between three and four years old with adults, prosecutors said.