With just over a week to go until the iPhone 6 is finally unveiled, Apple’s most important product launch of the year, the company may have a major scandal to deal with that’s directly related to its iOS ecosystem. Mashable reports that hackers managed to break into a number of iCloud accounts belonging to certain celebrities, and alleged nude photos and even compromising videos have been posted as a result.
It’s not clear how the hack was possible or whether or not iCloud was indeed hacked by a malicious third party interested in stealing such sensitive information in order to sell it online.
The hackers first took to 4chan to tease the “goods,” revealing they managed to access handsets belonging to quite a few celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, Ariana Grande, Victoria Justice, Jenny McCarthy, Kate Upton, Mary E. Winstead and many others.
A spokesperson for Grande said the photos are “completely fake,” with Justice also tweeting the images are forgeries.
On the other hand, Winstead confirmed the images were indeed stolen. “Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this. Feeling for everyone who got hacked,” she said on Twitter.
A similar confirmation was obtained from Jennifer Lawrence’s spokesperson. “This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence,” the statement to Mashable reads.
It’s unclear at this time how hackers were actually able to access personal data for so many people, and whether a potential iCloud security flaw is in fact to blame.
