A US judge has jailed a hacker for 10 years for stealing and distributing naked pictures from the email accounts of stars, including actress Scarlett Johansson.

A federal judge in Los Angeles yesterday jailed Christopher Chaney, 36, from Florida, and ordered him to pay a total of $76,000 to Johansson, Christina Aguilera and Renee Olstead, who were among dozens of people he hacked.

Chaney pleaded guilty in March, in a deal with prosecutors.

He could have been jailed for up to 121 years if convicted on all 26 indictments he was originally charged with.

He was arrested by the FBI in October after an 11-month investigation into the hacking of more than 50 entertainment industry names, many of them female stars including Mila Kunis.

The indictments against him included accessing and damaging computers, wire tapping and identify theft.

Hacked pictures of Johansson, star of The Horse Whisperer and Girl with a Pearl Earring, showed her in a state of undress in a home setting.

Aguilera's computer was hacked in December 2010, when racy photos of her were posted online.

Kunis's mobile phone was hacked in September that year with photos of her, including one in a bathtub, hitting the internet.

The FBI told the court Chaney used open-source, public information to guess a celebrity's email password, then would breach the account.

He then wrote to contacts found in the hacked email account's address list and searched the account for photos, information and other data.

To control the account, Chaney is alleged to have forwarded mail to a separate email address that he controlled.

After gaining access to the hacked account, Chaney then used the contact list to "harvest" new targets.

AFP