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Apple investigating iCloud for possible connection with celebrity photo leaks

By Kenny Yeo - on 2 Sep 2014, 9:50am

Apple investigating iCloud for possible connection with celebrity photo leaks

Just yesterday, it was reported that hundreds of racy photos of celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Selena Gomez and more were leaked on popular online forum 4chan.

The original poster of the images on 4chan also later said that some of the photos were collected from iCloud, but also admitted that some other photos were gathered from other sources.

Now, Apple is said to be "actively investigating" to see if its iCloud service was in some way responsible for some of the leaks. An Apple spokesperson reportedly said, "We take user privacy very seriously and are actively investigating this report."

Many reports are now suggesting that a combination of weak passwords and a lack of two-factor authentication could be the cause of this leak if iCloud turns out to be the source of the images. Additionally, hackers could also have used a Python script shared on Github to exploit a vulnerability in the Find My iPhone service. This vulnerability has since been patched.

Even if iCloud has had a role to play, this does not mean that only Apple devices are vulnerable as some of the photos showed celebrities taking photos with Android and Blackberry devices. Other services such as Snapchat and Dropbox have also been implicated into the mix.

Source: AppleInsider, Macrumors

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