Police probe Paris Hilton link in LexisNexis breach

US investigators have arrested five men on suspicion of involvement of hacking into the database of LexisNexis Group in a crime linked by prosecutors to a breach that led to the disclosure of the personal details of more than 310,000 people last year, The Register reports.

Some of the quintet are further suspected of swiping photos and data from an account tied to the mobile phone of heiress Paris Hilton. The suspects used stolen or illegally created accounts at LexisNexis subsidiaries to look up Social Security numbers and other personal information on dozens of other Hollywood celebrities.

According to prosecutors, one suspect broke into a computer run by police in Port Orange, Florida and used stolen credentials from this system to access Accurint, a law enforcement database service, maintained by Seisint, a local subsidiary of LexisNexis. The Accurint login credentials allowed the group to look up police records and other data on various high-profile celebrities.

Among those targeted were California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and actors Laurence Fishburne and Demi Moore as well as Paris Hilton.