Both Apple and FBI confirm investigation of nude celebrity photos fiasco

Personal data from various celebrities – nude photos and videos allegedly belonging to many well-known personalities from various entertainment businesses – have been stolen by a hacker or group of hackers and posted online a few days ago, an event known online as “the Fappening.” While some celebrities denied the leaked pictures, others confirmed their existence, and it looks like both Apple – whose iCloud service might have been somehow compromised in this particular hack – and the FBI are investigating the matter, The Register reports.

Even though a massive iCloud hack that could put at the risk personal data for millions of users is very unlikely to have happened, Apple is still looking into the matter, as iCloud security issues have been the first to be mentioned in relationship with this particular nude celebrities picture leak.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said the company is “actively investigating” the hacks, without revealing anything about Apple’s internal findings.

The FBI has also confirmed that it’s aware of the hack of “high profile individuals,” and that it’s “addressing the matter,” adding that “any further comment would be inappropriate.”

While a vulnerability issue in iCloud that could have been used to forcefully discover the password of an iTunes account, and thus retrieve personal data such as compromising pictures, the person performing such an attack would have still needed the actual email addresses tied to iTunes accounts for the celebrities that were hacked to go through with it. That particular brute force attack has been neutralized, and iTunes accounts can’t be similarly broken into.

It’s still unknown how the person or persons who obtained the photos and tried to sell them online were able to pull off the picture heists, although various theories exist.

SOURCE:

THE REGISTER