The FBI has joined Apple to investigate the alleged hack of its iCloud service after a massive number of intimate pictures of dozens of celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence and top model Kate Upton were published across the Internet.
Reports so far suggest that hackers were able to get their hands on private images from Apple’s iCloud service.
We take user privacy very seriously and are actively investigating this report, said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris, Re/code reported.
This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Lawrence’s agent told entertainment media.
Others reports also pointed out to a weakness in Apple’s Find my iPhone service, which was used to infiltrate the system. Since the breach, sources have said that Apple has patched the alleged hole.
Some celebrities have reported that they don’t even use an iPhone, which leads most to believe that the pictures could have been collected from multiple sources which does not include iCloud at all, and may have been gathered over several years.
UPDATE:
Apple has issued a statement saying it has conducted an investigation for more than 40 hours, and denied that iCloud or Find my iPhone were widely breached. Apple went on saying that the breach was specific and targeted as certain usernames and passwords attacking “certain celebrity accounts.”
The company also said that it is continuing its investigation with the authorities to identify the hackers involved.
Update to Celebrity Photo Investigation
We wanted to provide an update to our investigation into the theft of photos of certain celebrities. When we learned of the theft, we were outraged and immediately mobilized Apple’s engineers to discover the source. Our customers’ privacy and security are of utmost importance to us. 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. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved.
To protect against this type of attack, we advise all users to always use a strong password and enable two-step verification. Both of these are addressed on our website at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4232.
