After the massive celebrity hack which saw several nude images circling the Internet, Apple has been trying to protect itself from backlash by investigating what truly happened. Apparently, the iPhone maker believes this hack had nothing to do with its system, because the accounts of the victims were all targeted.
Despite the announcement by Apple, this is still a big problem, one that shouldn't have happened if the company had put measures in place to combat against "brute force" attacks.
"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," Apple said in a statement.
"None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple's systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone."
This massive breach came at the wrong time as Apple is preparing to launch the iPhone 6 in the coming days. We are not sure if this issue will have an effect on sales of the device, but certainly, some celebrities will be cautious before purchasing another smartphone with the Apple logo on it.
Furthermore, this breach in celebrity privacy has prompted several security advisers to warn celebrities that they need to use strong passwords and two-step authentication to help protect their accounts. In addition, they were also warned about the act of storing personal data on the Internet.
It should have been long known by now that storing personal data in the cloud can be harmful if hackers should ever get inside. There's no problem with storing images and other documents in the cloud, but they should not be of private and personal affairs. These celebrities made a big mistake, and now they are paying the price.
Not the first time.
Back in 2012, a man who lives in Florida was sentenced to ten years in prison after making his way into the online accounts of over 50 people in the entertainment business. Scarlett Johansson was one of the 50, and surprisingly, she was yet again caught bare in the latest hack.
From what we can tell, only female celebrities are being targeted here, but that doesn't mean male celebs should not be wary and feel too comfortable. Anything is possible in a world where technology is taking over, so one should always be extra cautious with any and everything that is stored in the cloud or in emails and social network accounts.
