Just one day after FBI Director James Comey criticized technology gaints Apple and Google for marketing lines of new smartphones equipped with improved encryption designed to thwart potential hacks, yet another online dump of hacked nude photos of various celebrities has hit the web.
It seems like there is no end of “nude celebrity photo leaks”. As part of the Fappening 3 hack, some latest naked photos of Jennifer Lawrence have apparently been leaked online in the “third round” of nude celebrity photo leaks including, top model Cara Delevingne, actress Anna Kendrick.
On Friday afternoon, download links surfaced on Reddit and 4chan boards that led to presumably hacked private photos of supermodel Cara Delevingne, actress Anna Kendrick, and others. Kendrick is clothed in all 87 of the photos leaked online, although they appear to be private images off her phone that show the actress partying in a series of revealing outfits.
Other females targeted in the latest leaked nude photo scandal, which online commenters have referred to as “The Fappening 3,” include: three-time Olympic gold medalist Misty May-Treanor, soap opera star Alexandra Chando, actress Kelli Garner (Going the Distance), TV presenter Brook Burns, and actress Lauren O’Neil. A video and images of actress Briana Evigan of the Step Up films also leaked.
Earlier this week, photos of Masters of Sex star Lizzy Caplan, former The View co-host Jenny McCarthy, and others hit the web. All these leaks follow in the wake of Monday’s leak of Rihanna, Amber Heard, and others; Saturday’s leak of Kim Kardashian, Scarlett Johansson, etc.; and the first big leak ofJennifer Lawrence and more. Thankfully, an online countdown clock—EmmaYouAreNext.com—which alleged it would leak nude photos of Harry Potter actress Emma Watson when the clock hit zero, presumably in retaliation for her moving speech on feminism at the United Nations, turned out to be an awful hoax perpetrated by a fake marketing firm dubbed Rantic Media hell-bent on shuttering 4chan. The naked pictures were allegedly retrieved due to a “brute force” security flaw in Apple’s iCloud file storage service.
From Jump Street, online posters (and their victims) have alleged that the leaks have happened by hackers penetrating the iCloud, and Lawrence and others contacted the FBI, who claimed to be working with Apple to ramp up security.
The fappening incident is currently under FBI investigation. However, Apple has already investigated the matter and had earlier this month confirmed there had been a “very targeted attack” on certain celebrities, rather than a widespread security breach affecting all users.
The company denied the claims of an iCloud security breach in a recent press release, stating:
The company denied the claims of an iCloud security breach in a recent press release, stating:
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.
There is also the possibility that the nude celebrity photos may have come from a different source. But whatever the source would be, this never ending massive privacy breach of high-profile celebs once again questioned the security and privacy of users online data.