Apple has issued a statement in regards to the recent security breach that led to the leaked photos of many celebrities. It looks as the rest of us may be safe.
Over the Labor Day weekend, may female celebrities woke up to the unpleasant news that private photos they had taken, many in a state of undress, had been leaked on to the Internet. It looked as though the source for all of them had been iCloud accounts leaving many to wonder if the entire system had been compromised. Thankfully for the majority of us, it appears that this was a targeted attack.
Apple issued a statement on the matter today that says it appears the attacks were very targeted.
“We wanted to provide an update to our investigation into the theft of photos of certain celebrities. When we learned of the theft, we were outraged and immediately mobilized Apple’s engineers to discover the source. Our customers’ privacy and security are of utmost importance to us. After more than 40 hours of investigation, 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. None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud® or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved.
To protect against this type of attack, we advise all users to always use a strong password and enable two-step verification.”
While this is still very unfortunate for the people that were hacked, it at least allows the rest of us to breathe a little easier that our iCloud accounts are more than likely safe. And it also serves a very clear reminder that all of us need to be careful with our passwords and use two-step verification whenever possible. It may be a nuisance, but it can be your best defense at times.
