Jennifer Lawrence's Nude Photos Leaked on Find My iPhone, Apple 'Outraged' But Says Systems 'Not Breached'
Apple denies security breach over leaked nude photos of some of the biggest names in Hollywood including Jennifer Lawrence. According to recent reports, the massive hack of celebrity nude photos may have something to do with a security flaw in Apple's "Find My iPhone" feature. More investigations say the feature is not built for "brute force attacks" which may have resulted to the leak. Some celebrities claim their images were not true while others blasted Apple and the leak as a clear invasion of privacy. Can Apple get out of this?
Whereas the attention over the nude photos of the celebrities involved has been intense, the deeper concern now rests on the access. Privacy is a very sensitive matter and photos leaked were a clear violation of that. Many have blasted Apple for the massive hack. A new report from Engadget cites code hosting site Github related to the case. According to the report, the exploit may have been part of the project called "ibrute." One day before the nude photos were released, ibrute developers pointed out a bug on Find My iPhone.
According to the developers, the feature is not equipped with "brutefoce" protection. This means Find My iPhone did not have the capacity to protect itself from hacking methods like multiple password attempts until access. Accessing AppleIDs were easy - compromised accounts were a high possibility. Fortunately, the security flaw has been patched. Engadget notes that the developers confirmed the fix. Nonetheless, the code still remains with label "proof of concept."
Apple has denied breach of system as the main cause of the massive leak. An excerpt from the media advisory released by the company says: "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."
Bryna Rifkin, Jennifer Lawrence's publicist, gave Buzzfeed an official statement about the matter: "This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence."
Kirsten Dunst took to Twitter her displeasure over the hack and Apple. The actress tweeted "Thank you iCloud" with an image of a pizza slice representation of the icons along with a pile of poo. Many have condemned the issue over social media.