In the wake of the celebrity nude photos scandal, there have been much focus on how personal photos of some of the biggest female celebrities have been obtained by an unscrupulous individual, who proceeded to share the images on 4chan for the world to see. Some of the celebrities who have been victimized by the hack were Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, May Elizabeth Winstead, and even Olympian McKayla Maroney. It has been widely believed that the images were accessed via a security hole in Apple's "Find My iPhone" service, as PC Magazine reported. Some also believe it was acquiared through the cloud service, iCloud.
However, it appears that the hack had been much more simpler, and a reminder for all to be vigilant about suspicious individuals or entities who ask for personal information online. Apple has released a statement absolving itself from the scandal, and believed that the images were obtained differently.
"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. 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."
TMZ explains that celebrities may have fallen victim to the scheme called phishing. The site wrote, "You get an email informing you there's some sort of problem with your account, and in order to fix it you'll need to send personal info -- such as a username, phone number, credit card, or even a password. So, you unwittingly give the crooks all they need to jack your data."
Although Apple has cautioned everyone to enable a two-step verification process on their accounts, Vanity Fair Contributing Editor, Michael Joseph Gross, had a very good insight on tech giants and their responsibility to keep personal information away from prying thieves.
Gross wrote, "The true scandal of the fappening - the one really useful thing about it - is that you couldn't wish for a clearer demonstration of how all of us now entrust the most private information about ourselves to the guardianship of public companies that have consistently proven themselves unworthy of that trust."
Upton has since responded to the scandal and expressed plans to pursue legal action to anyone who has published or passed on the photos.
Upton's attorney Lawrence Shire told US Weekly in a statement, "This is obviously an outrageous violation of our client Kate Upton's privacy. We intend to pursue anyone disseminating or duplicating these illegally obtained images to the fullest extent possible."