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The specific hackers behind the Sony breach and data leaks may never be identified or arrested. But authorities say they have caught a hacker behind another high-profile breach: the intrusion into computers owned by Madonna, which resulted in leaks of her songs before their scheduled release.
The Israeli suspect, 39-year-old Adi Lederman, was arrested in Tel-Aviv on Wednesday following a joint investigation by the FBI, the internet crime unit of Israel’s anti-fraud police and an Israeli private investigator.
Lederman, in a bit of irony, is an aspiring singer himself, having auditioned on air in 2012 for the Isareli TV talent show Kohav Nolad (A Star Is Born).
Asher Wizman, the private investigator, says that Madonna’s Israeli manager Guy Oseary contacted him following the December 17 leak of demo songs from Madonna’s upcoming album “Rebel Heart”—a breach that the singer called “artistic rape” and a form of terror.
According to Wizman, Oseary contacted him because there had been rumors that the hack pointed to someone in Israel. An expert sent to New York to examine Madonna’s computers reportedly confirmed that the hack originated in Israel, though it’s unclear how he did this.
“Our investigator found her computers, at home and at a studio, were broken into from a computer in Israel,” Wizman told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot . “We tracked down the computer, and the man behind it. After gathering enough evidence, we turned to the police and he was arrested today.”
In a raid of Lederman’s home, police seized computers and media storage devices.
Israeli police told the paper that Madonna wasn’t the only victim. Lederman had allegedly hacked the computers of several international artists in order to steal unreleased demos and final tracks and sell them.
No charges have been filed against Lederman, though police asked a court to put him under house arrest while they continue the investigation. The court granted a 10-day house arrest yesterday. His attorney denied the allegations to reporters and said she believed there was insufficient evidence to indict her client.
Following the leak of her unfinished demo songs, Madonna’s team released the final versions of six of her songs online, some of which debuted in the No. 1 slot on iTunes. The rest of the album is to be released in March.
During Lederman’s audition for Kohav Nolad in 2012 judges asked him what he did for a living. He reportedly replied, “Mainly wasting my life away, it seems, because I’m told that I should be on stage.”
For his audition, he sang the Stevie Wonder tune “Don’t You Worry About a Thing.”
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