Reported iCloud Hack Leaks Hundreds of Private Celebrity Photos

swinferno writes with news about the leak of hundreds of private celebrity photos over the weekend. Hundreds of revealing pictures of female celebrities were leaked overnight after being stolen from their private collections. Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst, and pop star Ariana Grande were among the celebrities apparently shown in the pictures, which were posted on infamous web forum 4chan. It's unclear how the images were obtained, but anonymous 4chan users said that they were taken from celebrities' iCloud accounts. The accounts are designed to allow iPhone, iPad, and Mac users to synchronize images, settings, calendar information, and other data between devices, but the service has been criticized for being unreliable and confusing. Earlier this year, Jennifer Lawrence herself complained about the service in an interview with MTV.

Comments

Alleged leaker already named

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty good detective work: http://pastebin.com/cwAz9Y2r

Re:Where are these photos?

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Reddit : /r/TheFappening http://www.reddit.com/r/TheFap...

Re:Where are these photos?

[bluec]

Not strictly true, this only happens if a) you sign in to icloud through system preferences or during the mac setup assistant and b) use iPhoto (and possibly iTunes) for your photo management. Apple haven't quite, yet, made it compulsory to use all their crapware if you want to use a mac.

Re:Where are these photos?

[SternisheFan]

A brute-force program to hack AppleID passwords was recently uploaded to the software-hosting GitHub. The program, appropriately called iBrute, is designed to flood AppleID logons with possible password combinations. The assumption is that the hacker would know the username, often derived from an email address.

Shortly before the stolen images were announced, the owner of iBrute announced the vulnerability — Find My iPhone did not deny access to brute force methods of figuring out a password. Early this morning, the same iBrute owner announced that the vulnerability has been closed, although there has not yet been confirmation from Apple.

iBrute is now reportedly locked out. But there is also speculation that the Find My iPhone hack was not solely to blame for all the apparently stolen files. For instance, someone could trick a celebrity user — or the celebrity’s assistant — into revealing enough information to gain access to iCloud backups. Additionally, it’s possible other online services were involved, since some of the images reportedly show celebrities using Android mobile devices.

http://venturebeat.com/2014/09...

Where are these photos?

[luca.masters]

Slashdot: Where we care about privacy, unless there's a chance to see a naked girl Pro-tip: There are millions of photos of naked women out there that can be viewed wiithout violating anyone's privacy. Go make use of those if you're in so desperate need.

Re:Where are these photos?

[jo_ham]

Not by default at all - you have to specifically add the photos to iPhoto and then turn on iCloud in system preferences.

Downloading pictures off a camera/usb stick/android phone can be done with Image Capture, and this does not put them on iCloud, just into folders on your computer.

Adding them to iPhoto is what puts them onto iCloud, and only if you turn it on - when you set up a Mac for the first time it asks you if you want it switched on (and prompts for an Apple ID).

If you use Aperture or iPhoto you can still keep things local only - there's a checkbox in preferences that turns off the iCloud sync.

Re:Where are these photos?

[Khyber]

"Since when has Apple prided itself or even claimed strict security? "

Uhh, remember the Macs don't get viruses campaign?

Re:Where are these photos?

[2ms]

What a bunch of nonsense. How do they "really really really" push iPhoto on Macs? It's there and it launches if you don't have photo imports associated with another app instead. I guess you would prefer that Macs come unable to handle photos out of the box?

Re:Where are these photos?

[AmiMoJo]

Actually Apple do claim that iCloud is very secure: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT...

Apple have long claimed to offer platforms free from malware and protected from hacking too. iOS even protects your kids from inappropriate content. Apple make big claims about security all the time.