Cyber Hacker has posted Naked photos of many celebs Online (according to Daily Mail)

[Echoes]

This Internet circus doesn't seem to have an end in sight just yet. Now a new player, or rather scapegoat, has entered the arena. Hackers who leaked compromising photos of Hollywood actresses are now believed to have used Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker or EPPB, a forensics software designed exactly for extracting user data from Apple's cloud service and, ironically, supposedly used by government and law enforcement agencies.

This revelation came via Anon-IB, an Internet forum dedicated to posting stolen nude photos. According to the information gathered from various posts, the hackers allegedly used a combination of EPPB and iBrute, a program released by security researcher Alexey Troshichev to pinpoint the security flaws in Apple's Find My iPhone feature. With iBrute, a hacker would be able to eventually get a user's login credentials. With EPPB, they will then be able to download everything that the user has, not just stored on iCloud, but also on their iOS devices. In essence, the tool masquerades as a device or user who is trying to restore an iPhone's content.

Elcomsoft, a Moscow-based company, is just one of many forensics outfits that develops such kind of software, primarily for legal purposes. However, it also seems to be the most loved by those with less than innocent goals in mind. The company's website makes no qualms about the capabilities of its software. Unfortunately, it also has no checks in place to ensure that the software doesn't fall into the wrong hands. EPPB may have a steep $399 price tag, but that of course won't stop it from being distributed illegally.

For its part, Apple, who claims it has been outraged by the incident, says that there is no case of mass security breach that others seem to suggest. Instead, it claims their 40 hours of investigation lead them to conclude that it was a very targeted attack at celebrity accounts, not exactly uncommon over the Internet. That said, it has updated the Find My iPhone feature to address those security holes exploited by iBrute, rendering at least this part of the question useless.

While the incident of these nude photos are quite deplorable, the issues that are now surfacing around it are perhaps even more worrisome. That the Internet is home to diverse, and sometimes questionable, interests isn't news. But the realization that there are indeed places where such activities thrive or are even promoted, much less offer services, is always disturbing. That "security" companies who create these tools would not place safeguards to ensure that only the right people have access to it is also puzzling. And then there are the corporations who would no sooner wash their hands than admit to complacency. Of course, users also have a part to play in safeguarding our own content, be it on our phones or in the cloud. But sometimes it feels almost futile when all these bigger forces seem to be working against you.

http://www.slashgear.com/icloud-hackers-said-to-have-used-polices-own-tool-03344323/

 

[Echoes]

Apple stock is down today too, but there are some mixed thoughts as to whether it's due to this or other reasons.

 

[AChanelADay]

The guy from Game of Thrones who plays Jamie Lannister said he was offered the world in Hollywood when he was younger if he only would lay on the couch so to speak-- he declined and look how long it took him -- he's got the looks, body, height and decent acting and he's in his mid 40's. Who knows who he might of been if he had only laid on the casting couch.

Ryan Seacrest is another famous example.

Yep, they prey on the Men and boys too! Just ask Corey Feldman...he was on Wendy W. one day and WENT OFF about this.[/QUOTE]

Ryan Seacreast is rumored to have been on the couch or he didn't?

 

[dangerouscurves]

"The Hunger Games universe is a dystopia set in "Panem", a country consisting of the wealthy Capitol and twelve districts in varying states of poverty. Every year, children are chosen to participate in a compulsory annual televised death match called The Hunger Games."

This is supposed to be entertainment?

Not for me. That why I never wanna see this movie.

A few pages back I asked why she even had naked pics in the first place. I guess the CC crept into my mind.

I still blame the hackers but as a normal person I wouldn't put my private pics in a place that people have access too. I read Apple's products use closed-system including iClouds. My guess is someone at Apple hacked their accounts. How would he/she know who have naked pics? He couldn't possibly check every celebrities accounts, right?

 

[labelwhore04]

Not for me. That why I never wanna see this movie.

A few pages back I asked why she even had naked pics in the first place. I guess the CC crept into my mind.

I still blame the hackers but as a normal person I wouldn't put my private pics in a place that people have access too. I read Apple's products use closed-system including iClouds. My guess is someone at Apple hacked their accounts. How would he/she know who have naked pics? He couldn't possibly check every celebrities accounts, right?

Interesting, i never thought about it but that makes sense, because some of the celebs are really random.

 

[Ladybug09]

Yep, they prey on the Men and boys too! Just ask Corey Feldman...he was on Wendy W. one day and WENT OFF about this.

Ryan Seacreast is rumored to have been on the couch or he didn't?[/QUOTE]
Mmmmm, I don't know about Ryan, never really followed him much.



Also, I don't think they will ever catch the 'real' hackers....they may catch 'a' hacker who will be the face of this issue, but they will never catch the real person. The real top-level hackers get recruited by NSA, FBI, etc to do counter hacking...

 

[Charles]

Technology is moving fast. IMO you aren't stupid or deserving of this because you didn't know it was easily hacked into. Maybe from modding here for so long I see on a daily basis how naïve people can be in terms of technology.

And naivete doesn't mean you're free game to be preyed upon. Do we yell at older people when they get duped by Nigerian Princes? "Stupid grandma!! This is your fault". No, we give her a hug, call the cops and try to find the criminals.
I just don't get this backlash. I've taken various types of pics over the years, and the way I choose to store them shouldn't matter. If someone hacks me and steals them, committing a crime in the process, then they're the ones that shoulder 100% of the crime/blame. I did absolutely nothing illegal.

 

[slowlikehoney]

This!!! I never store anything on the Cloud. And if you look at the small print carefully, I bet it says the intellectual property rights of the stuff stored on the Cloud belongs to the company hosting the Cloud somewhere.



And I must the only person who doesn't have a naked photo of themselves in this planet. Is taking naked photo of yourself being the norm nowadays?

There are no naked pics of me anywhere on this planet. No Polaroids nothing. Unless it's been done without my knowledge. So I'm with you.
However, maybe if I was as proud of my body as these ladies seem to be I would have some? I don't know. Either way, I do feel for them. I am one of the naive ones that didn't know how easy the iCloud was to hack into until all this happened.

 

[grazia]

And naivete doesn't mean you're free game to be preyed upon. Do we yell at older people when they get duped by Nigerian Princes? "Stupid grandma!! This is your fault". No, we give her a hug, call the cops and try to find the criminals.
I just don't get this backlash. I've taken various types of pics over the years, and the way I choose to store them shouldn't matter. If someone hacks me and steals them, committing a crime in the process, then they're the ones that shoulder 100% of the crime/blame. I did absolutely nothing illegal.

Why Nigerian?

 

[Echoes]

(Reuters) - The Nasdaq dropped on Wednesday, led by a decline in Apple shares, while other leading indexes were little changed.

Apple shares (AAPL.O) were down 4.1 percent at $99.07, heading toward their worst percentage decline since Jan. 28.

At least one brokerage mulled downgrading the stock as Apple grappled with a possible security breach of its iCloud service a week before the launch of its new iPhone.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/03/us-markets-stocks-idUSKBN0GY19Y20140903

 

[Echoes]

Why Nigerian?

No reason in particular. Nigerian princesses, princes, doctors, deposed military leaders, etc. have been the players in scams worldwide for about 20 years or so. Every once in a while another nationality surfaces, but Nigeria is by far the most common used.

 

[bag-mania]

^^I bet Apple stock will recover next week when the iPhone 6 is released. People have short memories and will be clamoring for the newest shiny thing.

 

[Singra]

Not for me. That why I never wanna see this movie.

A few pages back I asked why she even had naked pics in the first place. I guess the CC crept into my mind.

I still blame the hackers but as a normal person I wouldn't put my private pics in a place that people have access too. I read Apple's products use closed-system including iClouds. My guess is someone at Apple hacked their accounts. How would he/she know who have naked pics? He couldn't possibly check every celebrities accounts, right?

Don't know if I'm understanding you correctly but what advantage would working at Apple give someone? Even if they worked for Apple wouldn't they still need to sift through an awful lot of accounts until they found what they were looking for?

It's not terribly surprising they targeted JLaw because she's so high profile but a lot of the celebs on the list I'd never heard of before.

 

[FreeSpirit71]

And naivete doesn't mean you're free game to be preyed upon. Do we yell at older people when they get duped by Nigerian Princes? "Stupid grandma!! This is your fault". No, we give her a hug, call the cops and try to find the criminals.
I just don't get this backlash. I've taken various types of pics over the years, and the way I choose to store them shouldn't matter. If someone hacks me and steals them, committing a crime in the process, then they're the ones that shoulder 100% of the crime/blame. I did absolutely nothing illegal.

Good post Charles. I think with the articles starting to come out now, we may see the backlash receed - or at least I hope so.

These people are victims of a crime.

The problem with technology/cyber crimes is that the law often struggles to keep up with it. In this case there's precedent with cases like ScarJo and everyday peeps setting up the framework.

 

[glamourous1098]

And naivete doesn't mean you're free game to be preyed upon. Do we yell at older people when they get duped by Nigerian Princes? "Stupid grandma!! This is your fault". No, we give her a hug, call the cops and try to find the criminals.
I just don't get this backlash. I've taken various types of pics over the years, and the way I choose to store them shouldn't matter. If someone hacks me and steals them, committing a crime in the process, then they're the ones that shoulder 100% of the crime/blame. I did absolutely nothing illegal.

This times a thousand!