Kyle Svara, a 27-year-old man from Oswego, Illinois, was sentenced Tuesday to 76 months in prison by a federal judge in Boston for hacking Snapchat accounts. According to federal prosecutors, Svara admitted to illegally accessing hundreds of accounts to steal and distribute nude and semi-nude photos of women, including college students.
Svara was sentenced Tuesday, July 21, 2026, by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston federal court to 76 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, according to federal prosecutors and local media reports. At the time of sentencing, Svara was 27 years old. The sentence exceeded the three-year prison term initially recommended by prosecutors under a plea agreement reached earlier in the case.
Svara hacked into at least 517 Snapchat accounts belonging primarily to women, including college students and student-athletes, from May 2020 through February 2021.
Federal charging documents and court records show that Prosecutors said he used anonymized, internet-based phone numbers to send phishing text messages to more than 1,500 women, falsely posing as Snapchat support to trick victims into providing security codes. Nearly 600 women responded with these codes, enabling Svara to bypass Snapchat’s security measures and access their accounts without authorization.
Once inside the accounts, Svara downloaded nude or semi-nude photos from at least 59 women, according to filings by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. Prosecutors stated that he kept, sold, or traded these images on the internet, treating them as digital contraband. Victims included students from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, whose accounts were among those compromised, as reported by WGME, a local Maine television station.
The case is linked to a prior prosecution involving a former Northeastern University track-and-field coach, who paid Svara to hack the Snapchat accounts of student-athletes and other women associated with the university. Federal officials said this connection expanded the scope of Svara’s scheme beyond random targets to include specific individuals tied to the coach’s activities.
Svara faced multiple federal charges, including aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, and making false statements related to child pornography, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts. He pleaded guilty in February 2026 to computer fraud, aggravated identity theft, and other counts, admitting to phishing Snapchat login credentials to steal private images. Prosecutors also noted that Svara lied about collecting child sexual abuse material during the fraud, a charge to which he admitted as part of his plea.
The phishing scheme relied on social engineering tactics, with Svara impersonating Snapchat support to induce victims to share their security codes. Prosecutors explained that he used anonymized phone numbers to obscure his identity and make the scheme harder to detect. These methods allowed him to infiltrate hundreds of private Snapchat accounts and access sensitive content.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office described the operation as a large-scale effort that compromised the privacy of hundreds of women and involved the illegal trading of sexually explicit images online. Reuters reported on the sentencing, highlighting the six-year prison term and the scope of the hacking campaign. U.S. News & World Report and Ground News also covered the story, noting the targeting of more than 1,500 women and the downloading of images from at least 59 accounts.
Judge Murphy’s sentence reflects the severity of the offenses and the impact on victims, according to federal officials. After serving his prison term, Svara will be subject to supervised release for three years, a standard period of post-incarceration monitoring in federal cases.
The prosecution was handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, which continues to address cybercrime and privacy violations involving social media platforms. The case underscores ongoing federal efforts to combat phishing and unauthorized access to personal digital accounts.
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