{"id":72075,"date":"2014-09-02T22:59:45","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T20:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/?p=72075"},"modified":"2025-07-02T00:30:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:30:21","slug":"apple-denies-widespread-security-breach-leaked-celebrity-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/apple-denies-widespread-security-breach-leaked-celebrity-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple denies widespread iCloud breach, says celebrities were targeted"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a forty hour investigation<\/a>, Apple has concluded that the “hack” exposing nude pictures of celebrities was a targeted attack, not a widespread vulnerability<\/strong>. Over the weekend, the media speculated that hacking tools may have been responsible for the breach but that’s not the case.<\/p>\n

According to Apple, the celebrities suffered from a “very targeted attack” that exploited their passwords and security questions<\/strong>. This type of attack is nothing new, as Wired<\/em> editor Mat Honan faced a similar attack<\/a> in 2012.<\/p>\n

The celebrities also could have fallen victim to phishing attacks<\/strong>, whereby hackers compose fake emails that look like a site or service is asking for their username and passwords.<\/p>\n

We still don’t have conclusive evidence of how the attackers gained access to the celebrity iCloud accounts but Apple is certain its security is sound. iCloud encrypts data and offers two-factor authentication<\/a>, making it difficult for hackers. But none of this matters if someone falls victim to social engineering.<\/p>\n

Apple is continuing its investigation with law enforcement to get to identify those responsible for the breach.<\/p>\n

Be sure to check out our guides on what you need to know about syncing photos to your iCloud account<\/a> and how to protect your online identity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: Apple<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/h3>\n

What you need to know about syncing photos in iCloud<\/a><\/p>\n

Apple is ‘actively investigating’ possible iCloud security breach<\/a><\/p>\n

Tox aims to be an open source and secure alternative to Skype<\/a><\/p>\n

Apple event confirmed for September 9th, iOS 8 coming soon<\/a><\/p>\n

Microsoft responds to Windows Store fake app problem<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow Lewis on Twitter: @lewisleong<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a forty hour investigation, Apple has concluded that the “hack” exposing nude pictures of celebrities was a targeted attack, not a widespread vulnerability. Over the weekend, the media speculated that hacking tools may have been responsible for the breach but that’s not the case. According to Apple, the celebrities suffered from a “very targeted … Continue reading “Apple denies widespread iCloud breach, says celebrities were targeted”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2033,"featured_media":72078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-72075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2033"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330239,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72075\/revisions\/330239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72075"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=72075"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=72075"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=72075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}