Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Damage Control: Nude Photos of Celebs Were Not Taken from iCloud, Apple Says

9/3/2014


LOS ANGELES – Apple on Tuesday denied that any vulnerability of its systems was to blame for the massive hacking of intimate photos of unclad celebrities that were published online on the weekend.

“None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone,” the tech giant said in a statement.

The team that analyzed the incident came to that conclusion after “more than 40 hours” of work during which they 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,” Apple said.

Apple said that this type of incident occurs due to the insufficient user account security and it recommended that difficult passwords be selected and a two-step log-in process be implemented as a way to foil hackers.

“We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved,” the company said.

Despite the fact that many of the photos have been characterized as clumsy fakes, some of the victims, including “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence, have confirmed that among the published pics are some that are genuine, including those of her.

The list of celebrities who allegedly have been the targets of this virtual attack includes Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Victoria Justice, Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton, Lea Michelle, Mary Kate Olsen and Kirsten Dunst, according to Buzzfeed.com.

Justice and Grande were among those saying the purported images of them were fake.


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