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 The week before a crucial launch of its new iPhone, Apple Inc
said intimate photos of celebrities including Oscar-winner
Jennifer Lawrence were leaked online through the apparent
hacking of individual iCloud accounts.
Apple rushed to restore confidence in its systems' security,
saying the celebrity photo scandal that also ensnared swimsuit
model Kate Upton, actress Kirsten Dunst and possibly dozens more
was the result of targeted attacks on accounts storing personal
data and not a direct breach of Apple systems.
"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," Apple said in a statement.
"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 celebrity hacking that came to light over the long Labor Day
weekend nevertheless ranks among the highest-profile public
fiascos for Apple in recent years.
Apple's iCloud service allows users to store photos and other
content and access it from any Apple device. Security in the
cloud has been a paramount concern in past years, but that has
not stopped the rapid adoption of services that offer reams of
storage and management of data and content off smartphones and
computers.
Regardless of how the leaking of nude celebrity photos actually
happened, the timing could not have been worse for Apple as it
prepares to launch a new iPhone next week.
It also underscored the longer-term risks for mobile users as
smartphones increasingly become the repository for far more
sensitive healthcare, banking and personal data.
"Every great innovation is convenient but also a big opportunity
for the bad guys in the world," said Marc Maiffret at security
firm BeyondTrust.
Cybersecurity experts say the perpetrators possibly gleaned the
celebrities' email addresses and mounted a long-term phishing
attempt - a relatively straightforward attack through which
hackers gain access to users' accounts by getting them to click
on a compromised URL or Internet link.
The photos were posted on image-sharing forum 4Chan, prompting
Lawrence's representatives to describe their release as a
"flagrant violation of privacy" and contact law enforcement
authorities.
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A WAKE-UP CALL TO ALL
That the hacking could hit Lawrence, who is one of the biggest names
in Hollywood, the star of the hugely popular "Hunger Games" films
and the best actress Oscar winner, came as a wake-up call to both
the famous and non-famous.
"This feels like a brute-force attack and someone's using bad
passwords," said Michael Fertik, chief executive of online image
manager Reputation.com. "If you must take a nude photo use a
non-obvious password."
Hackers use so-called brute-force software to cycle through large
numbers of possible passwords during log-in attempts.
Fertik said hacked celebrities would likely have to live with the
leaked photos remaining outside their management for the foreseeable
future.
The FBI said it is addressing the celebrity photo hacking, but added
that any further comment "would be inappropriate at this time."
Apart from any criminal charges that might be pursued under federal
or state hacking laws, Lawrence and the other celebrities could
bring civil lawsuits against the alleged hacker or hackers and those
who shared the photos.
"The way the celebrities were treating the photos, I don’t think
there’s any doubt that the law will treat them as being private and
the distribution of the photos was a violation of privacy," said
Evan Brown, a technology and intellectual property attorney at
InfoLawGroup in Chicago.
In 2012, a Florida man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for
hacking into online accounts of more than 50 people in the
entertainment industry. He gained access to nude photos of actress
Scarlett Johansson, who tearfully said she was "humiliated and
embarrassed" in a video statement to the court.
(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Dastin, Michael Parks, Andrew Chung
and Patricia Reaney in New York, Eric Kelsey in Los Angeles; Writing
by Mary Milliken; Editing by Tom Brown)
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