Crawling in My Skin

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A crazed fan somehow managed to breach the security of Verizonwireless to obtain phone, email and photo records for the wife of Linkin Park lead singer, Chester Bennington.

The fan then used that information to make threatening phone calls to the wife, Talinda Bennington.

From AOL here:

A Linkin Park fan has been arrested after allegedly hacking into the cell-phone and e-mail records of lead singer Chester Bennington and his wife.

Devon Townsend, 27, of Albuquerque, faces federal charges on suspicion of using a lab computer to access a cell-phone company’s Web site, the Albuquerque Journal reports.

Court documents allege that Townsend obtained personal phone numbers that Bennington had called and pictures he had taken with his camera phone. Authorities believe she also hacked into the e-mail account of Bennington’s wife, Talinda, a former Playboy model, and has made threatening phone calls to her.

Talinda Bennington reported the security breach on the couple’s Verizon Wireless online account last month, saying that she was worried about a “stalker,” according to a federal affadavit. Police traced the activity to Townsend, who admitted to the online hacking and the threatening calls, the affadavit states. A search of Townsend’s house then turned up Linkin Park memorabilia.

And there is more from the AP here regarding what was found in the search and which lab Townsend was working at-

She is accused of using a computer at her former workplace, Sandia National Laboratories, to access Bennington’s cell phone information. Lab spokesman Michael Padilla said Wednesday that she no longer worked there.

The affidavit says that during a search of Townsend’s home in Albuquerque, investigators found Linkin Park posters, autographed band memorabilia, pictures of Townsend with Chester Bennington, bootlegged Linkin Park music and copies of messages and photographs intercepted from the Bennington family’s e-mail accounts.

So was Townsend some kind of great hacker with awesome skills? Probably not. She likely came across either Chester’s or Talinda’s cell phone number somewhere, maybe on a fansite on the internet, since she was so consumed with Linkin Park. Or, since there is a photo of her with Chester, perhaps she used his phone to dial her own to get the number that way. Once the number was obtained, the odds are good that neither of the Benningtons had setup their online verizonwireless account as yet. Townsend set up those accounts herself, giving herself the password. Now she had access to the online photos, phone numbers, and if the cellphones were also email capable, access to that account as well.

What the hell do they do at Sandia anyways? The cyber security of DOE is awful.

And this is not the first time that a celeb has been hacked.