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APPLE HAS SAID that the recent hacking and theft of photos from celebrities was the result of a “very targeted attack” and has not resulted in a breach of iCloud or other Apple systems.
Almost two days since the private photos of celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst and Kate Upton were released on 4chan, Apple have made their first public comment.
There have been concerns that the theft of the photos demonstrated that information saved on a person’s cloud account was vulnerable.
Apple have said this evening that they have found that the attack was aimed specifically at the celebrities in question and targeted their password and security questions:
After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet. None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone.
“To protect against this type of attack, we advise all users to always use a strong password and enable two-step verification,” Apple added in their statement.
Apple also said that they were working with law enforcement to help identify those responsible for the hacking, with the FBI saying yesterday that they are also investigating the allegations.
“The FBI is aware of the allegations concerning computer intrusions and the unlawful release of material involving high-profile individuals, and is addressing the matter,” the US law enforcement agency said.
Representatives for Lawrence have confirmed that the naked pictures of the Oscar-winning actress were genuine and threatened to prosecute anyone posting them.
Chris Morales, a security specialist with NSS Labs, said that the hack appeared to be going on for some time, accessing multiple accounts — not just of celebrities but of their friends and associates.
“The pictures weren’t just from celebrity accounts,” Morales said. “They might have been from friends or ex-boyfriends or other people. Someone did a lot of digging.”
Morales added that it is possible that the person or persons who leaked the pictures were not the hackers, but obtained the photos later.
Additional reporting by © – AFP 2014
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Phew! My bedroom antics are safe…
Yup! You can bring the sheep back in from the yard!
From my dungeon you mean
I didn’t know that sheep can descend stairs. Useful information, guys!
They apparently puahback harder at the top!
It rubs the lotion on its wool or else it gets the hose again
He makes jumpers from the fat ones…
Sheepskin coats rather than jumpers, surely?
Better in the old days n giving your film into the local chemist to get developed. Least ya knew only a couple shop assistants had a gawk at the crown jewels not half the planet
One Hour Photo – underrated movie. RIP Williams.
Ah for f**ks sake, if you dont want naked photos seen of yourself, then dont take them!
Can you see the ground from atop your high horse?
Photos were taken, deleted, but somehow retained in their account anyway …
Please don’t post any links to these celeb pics. I’m up for the next 2 hours so no links or even worse direct links to these pics.
Dear everyone, take all the naked pictures you like. Just make sure you don’t do it on an iPhone that synchs to every iThing on your Mac, iPod, iTunes, iCloud.
Apple doesn’t do privacy.
Don’t think any online storage thingy does…. I’d rather keep them on a usb or external hard drive privately where one has more control…
In fairness Daisy, you can turn off all that Apple sync stuff. Google can be just as bad.
Google, Microsoft, facebook, twitter, dropbox are all far better at security than Apple.
This was the fault of apple and was inevitable. It was the most basic security fault and was left unpatched.
Its still childs play to hack any iCloud account still with a little patience and knowledge. The lack of two factor authentication is a disgrace.
Gaining access to an icloud account is simple. Their lack of 2 step verification is nothing short of stupid.
The whole apple mantra is to keep things simple for their users and now that simplicity is causing a major issue.
They have come out publicly and stated that the haven’t been hacked, but dozens of users have been accessed easily…..IT SHOULDNT BE EASY!
I “know a guy” who helped a client access her husbands iCloud account in about 30 seconds. She could she his agenda, contacts, location and downloaded ALL of his photos to catch him cheating.
If asked to do this on google or Microsoft….not possible!
There is 2 factory authentication for iCloud, but don’t let that get in your way of Apple bashing
Photo are automatically uploaded to iCloud and it’s difficult to disable. You have to wait 3 days for 2 factor authentication and it’s hard enough to enable. Apple allowed unlimited password attempts on Find my Iphone and didn’t patch it when it was common knowledge.
If I so much as log into a Google, Facebook or Yahoo account which I don’t have two factor authentication on I am reminded again and again to enable it. Compared to Apple were they actively make if difficult.
This from a company which wants to hold your healthdata? Apple can’t do cloud services at all, iCloud has always been buggy and photostream is a joke. Great hardware, shit cloud services.
People have been banging on about this for a long time.
http://www.wired.com/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/all/
http://valleywag.gawker.com/icloud-isnt-safe-because-everyones-a-target-and-apple-1629660564
One day my OneDrive or my Google Drive might get hacked but until then I’ll be feeling a bit smug towards Apple Fanboys.
Phew…those photos taken after we lost the county final could be very damaging.
ICloud was not breached peeps, just wanted to put it out there….I really wanted it ~ actor x (who has it, a lot)
Meh, sheep are for amateurs!
Stop man! Everyone’s heard about your “sock puppet” collection!
iCloud has had two-factor authentication since earlier this year (yes, it was a long time coming), and a series of phishing attacks is not the same as a hack on a central system, but don’t let real info get in the way of your Apple-bashing…
Except auto-upload is automatically enabled, two factor authentication is a pain to find and enable. So the exact opposite of sensible security procedures.
Plus if you have their email you can just try and guess their security questions which they can’t choose and are normally easy to find on FB. It’s just badly designed.
Yes but you choose the answer to your security question!
I just choose an answer that is unrelated to the question!
Or have your answer with numbers combined either within the word or around the word?
Sure but then you have to go back and use your security question and you have no idea what the answer you chose is. I have dozens of accounts, I need a obscure question which nobody else would know but to which there is a genuine answer.
Write them down somewhere on a piece of paper.
Robberies are usually opportunists looking for cash or high value items, not usually a piece of paper!
Hackers can look for information on your laptop but if you’ve gone old school and written it down?
The two don’t usually cross over?
Unless your a Celeb or high profile figure I can’t see someone breaking into your house for passwords.
How many if your accounts are high security anyway.
You banking should be memorised and never written down!
Interested to hear people’s thoughts on this!
ICloud was breeched. Apple were breeched. Their security was compromised by a targeted attack, but targeted attacks against high profile individuals should be anticipated. This is a “hardware company” attitude that doesn’t cut it in the HVA services niche that Apple purport to play on. Eye on the ball fellas!
Breached
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