Naked Photos Online: Are Your iCloud Pics Safe From Hackers?
Naked photos of Kate Upton, Jennifer Lawrence, Ariana Grande, Mary Winstead and many other celebrities were leaked online on Sunday, reportedly via an iCloud hack. Hundreds of nude images were posted on the 4Chan website on Sunday after hackers broke into Apple’s iCloud storage system, leaving many iPhone users wondering if their own personal photos are safe in the cloud.
Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this. Feeling for everyone who got hacked.
— Mary E. Winstead (@M_E_Winstead) August 31, 2014
Buzz Feed reports that the 4chan user, who is supposedly responsible for posting the naked photos online, has hundreds of photos and explicit videos that have not been released yet. There is reportedly a master list of naked photos of celebrities that not only includes Upton, Grande and Lawrence’s nude pics, but celebs like Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Mary-Kate Olsen Kirsten Dunst, Victoria Justice and Kaley Cuoco.
Some of the nude photos are authentic, while the authenticity of others is still unknown. Buzz Feed states that reps for both Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton have confirmed that the naked photos are real, but there is no word on the hundreds of other photos and videos that have already surfaced online.
These so called nudes of me are FAKE people. Let me nip this in the bud right now. *pun intended* — Victoria Justice (@VictoriaJustice) August 31, 2014
The incident has many people worried that their photos could be exposed. Not only are the leak of explicit photos a concern, but personal photos of children that are stored on Apple’s iCloud. While this hack seems to focus on celebrities, there is still a concern about the privacy of the photos that both celebs and everyday people keep in the cloud.
Mashable reports that it is still not clear if an iCloud breach actually happened. Apple has not confirmed this as of yet, but writer Christina Warren states that it is “important to note that even if iCloud accounts were compromised, that doesn’t necessarily signify a larger, systemic breach.”
“Until we see any evidence that indicates that a broader iCloud breach occurred we have no reason to believe that iCloud is unsafe.”
For those who are concerned, Mashable stresses the importance of having a very unique password for your iCloud account. While there are multiple security measures in place to protect photos and other data on Apple’s iCloud, a strong password would make it difficult for anyone other than the craftiest of hackers to grab any of the data as it goes from your phone to Apple’s servers.
This weekend’s naked photo leak may be limited to celebrities, but it makes good sense to keep your own personal photos and data as safe as possible by having strong, unique password and checking frequently to make sure your phone is running the latest version of its operating system.
[Image: @KateUpton Twitter]
