August 2014 celebrity photo leaks
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On August 31, 2014, a collection of nearly five hundred private pictures of various celebrities, mostly women, with many containing nudity, were posted on the
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4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...
, and quickly disseminated by other users on websites and social networks such as
Imgur Imgur ( , stylized as imgur) is an American online image sharing and image hosting service with a focus on social gossip that was founded by Alan Schaaf in 2009. The service has hosted viral images and meme, particularly those posted on Reddit ...
and
Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...
. The leak has been popularly dubbed The Fappening and also Celebgate. The images were initially believed to have been obtained via a breach of
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
's cloud services suite
iCloud iCloud is a cloud service from Apple Inc. launched on October 12, 2011 as a successor to MobileMe. , the service had an estimated 850 million users, up from 782 million users in 2016. iCloud enables users to sync their data to the cloud, inclu ...
, or a security issue in the iCloud
API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...
which allowed them to make unlimited attempts at guessing victims' passwords. Apple claimed in a press release that access was gained via spear phishing attacks. The incident was met with varied reactions from the media and fellow celebrities. Critics felt the distribution of the photos was a major invasion of privacy for their subjects, while some of the alleged subjects denied the images' authenticity. The leak also prompted increased concern from analysts surrounding the privacy and security of cloud computing services such as iCloud—with a particular emphasis on their use to store sensitive, private information.


Etymology

"The Fappening" is a jocular portmanteau coined by combining the words " fap", an internet slang term for masturbation, and the title of the 2008 film '' The Happening''. Though the term is a vulgarism originating either with the imageboards where the pictures were initially posted or Reddit, mainstream media outlets soon adopted the term themselves, such as the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. The term has received criticism from journalists like Radhika Sanghani of ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'' and Toyin Owoseje of the '' International Business Times'', who said that the term not only trivialized the leak, but also, according to Sanghani, "
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light of a very severe situation." Both articles used the term extensively to describe the event, including in their headlines. "Celebgate" is a
reference Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a '' name'' ...
to the
Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...
.


Procurement and distribution

The images were obtained via the online storage offered by
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
's
iCloud iCloud is a cloud service from Apple Inc. launched on October 12, 2011 as a successor to MobileMe. , the service had an estimated 850 million users, up from 782 million users in 2016. iCloud enables users to sync their data to the cloud, inclu ...
platform for automatically backing up photos from
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
devices, such as iPhones. Apple later reported that the victims' iCloud account information was obtained using "a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions", such as
phishing Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent (e.g., spoofed, fake, or otherwise deceptive) message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious softwa ...
and
brute-force attack In cryptography, a brute-force attack consists of an attacker submitting many passwords or passphrases with the hope of eventually guessing correctly. The attacker systematically checks all possible passwords and passphrases until the correc ...
guessing. It was initially believed that the images were obtained using an exploit in the Find My iPhone service. Court documents from 2014 indicated that one user created a fake email account called "appleprivacysecurity" to ask celebrities for security information. The photos were being passed around privately for at least a couple of weeks before their public release on August 31. There are claims that unreleased photos and videos exist. The hacker responsible for the leak, who described themselves as being a "collector", distributed the leaked images on the image boards
4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...
and Anon-IB in exchange for Bitcoin. Ultimately, the images were widely circulated online via other channels, including
Imgur Imgur ( , stylized as imgur) is an American online image sharing and image hosting service with a focus on social gossip that was founded by Alan Schaaf in 2009. The service has hosted viral images and meme, particularly those posted on Reddit ...
and
Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
. Celebrity gossip blogger
Perez Hilton Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. (born March 23, 1978), known professionally as Perez Hilton, is an American blogger, columnist, and media personality. His blog is known for posts covering gossip items about celebrities, and for posting tabloid ph ...
also re-posted some of the photos on his blog, but soon took them down and issued an apology, saying "he had acted in bad taste". A major center of activity was the link-sharing website
Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...
, where a subreddit, /r/TheFappening, was created for sharing the photos; in a single day, it amassed over 100,000 followers. Reddit administrators were criticized for allowing this to take place in an alleged violation of their anti-
doxing Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet. Historically, the term has been used interchangeably to refer to both the aggregation of this in ...
rules. As
McKayla Maroney McKayla Rose Maroney (born December 9, 1995) is a retired American artistic gymnast and singer. She was a member of the American women's gymnastics team dubbed the Fierce Five at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she won a gold medal in the team ...
claimed to be under 18 at the time the photos of her were taken, Reddit staff took photos of her down and warned that anyone re-posting them, or underage photos of
Liz Lee Liz is a female name of Hebrew origin, meaning "God's Promise". It is also a short form of Elizabeth, Elisabeth, Lisbeth, Lizanne, Liszbeth, Lizbeth, Lizabeth, Lyzbeth, Lisa, Lizette, Alyssa, and Eliza. People * Liz Balmaseda (born 1959), Puli ...
which had been circulating prior to this incident, would be permanently banned from the site and could be prosecuted for distributing
child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a ...
. On September 7, citing copyright issues, Reddit banned /r/TheFappening, also saying the workload of dealing with them had become too much. Reddit banned another subreddit named "Fappening" on the same day.


Content and affected celebrities

The original release contained photos and videos of more than 100 individuals that were allegedly obtained from
file storage In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one larg ...
on hacked iCloud accounts, including some the leakers claimed were
A-list An A-list actor is a major movie star, or one of the most bankable actors in a film industry. The A-list is part of a larger guide called ''The Hot List'', which ranks the bankability of 1,400 movie actors worldwide, and has become an industry ...
celebrities. Shortly after the photos were leaked, several affected celebrities issued statements either confirming or denying the photos' authenticity. Celebrities who confirmed the photos' authenticity include Jennifer Lawrence (confirmed by her publicist),
Kate Upton Katherine Elizabeth Upton (born June 10, 1992) is an American model. She first appeared in the ''Sports Illustrated'' Swimsuit Issue in 2011, and was the cover model for the 2012, 2013 and 2017 issues. In addition, she was the subject of the 1 ...
and her husband
Justin Verlander Justin Brooks Verlander ( ; born February 20, 1983) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros. From Manakin-Sabot, ...
(confirmed by Upton's lawyer),
Mary Elizabeth Winstead Mary Elizabeth Winstead (born November 28, 1984) is an American actress and singer. Her first significant role was that of Jessica Bennett on the NBC soap opera ''Passions'' (1999–2000). She went on to appear in series such as ''Tru Calling' ...
(confirmed via
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
), Jessica Brown Findlay (confirmed by spokesman),
Kaley Cuoco Kaley Christine Cuoco ( ; born November 30, 1985) is an American actress. After a series of supporting film and television roles in the late 1990s, she landed her breakthrough role as Bridget Hennessy on the ABC sitcom ''8 Simple Rules'' (200 ...
(confirmed via Instagram), and
Kirsten Dunst Kirsten Caroline Dunst (; born April 30, 1982) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the short ''Oedipus Wrecks'' directed by Woody Allen in the anthology film '' New York Stories'' (1989). She then gained recognition for her ro ...
, who also criticized the iCloud service. Jill Scott confirmed on Twitter that one of the leaked photos was of her while stating that another was fake. Celebrities who denied the photos' authenticity include Ariana Grande and
Yvonne Strahovski Yvonne Jaqueline Strzechowski (born 30 July 1982), known professionally as Yvonne Strahovski (), is an Australian actress. Primarily noted for her roles in dramatic television, she has received numerous awards and nominations, including two Pri ...
. Olympic gymnast
McKayla Maroney McKayla Rose Maroney (born December 9, 1995) is a retired American artistic gymnast and singer. She was a member of the American women's gymnastics team dubbed the Fierce Five at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she won a gold medal in the team ...
initially denied the images' authenticity on Twitter, but later confirmed the photos were legitimate while also saying she was underage when they were taken. Victoria Justice denied the photos were authentic but later stated on Twitter that she was pursuing legal action and found the leak to be a massive invasion of not just her privacy, but of the privacy of all celebrities affected by the incident. Reports in October indicated that
Nick Hogan Nicholas Allan Bollea (born July 27, 1990),http://www.californiabirthindex.org/birth/nicholas_allan_bollea_born_1990_19709589 formerly known as Nick Hogan, is an American reality television personality known for his appearances on the reality s ...
was the first male star to be directly targeted by hackers; however, Hogan denied the pictures' authenticity. According to security expert
Nik Cubrilovic Nik Cubrilovic is an Australian former hacker and leading internet security blogger. __NOTOC__ Personal life Nik Cubrilovic ( sr, Čubrilović) is an ethnic Serb. Work In 2011 he successfully forced Facebook to address a privacy flaw whereby t ...
, in addition to the photographs, other personal information such as text messages, calendars, address books, phone call logs and any other data stored on their phones and backed up to the service were also likely stolen. On September 20, 2014, a second batch of similar private photos of additional celebrities was leaked by hackers. On September 26, 2014, a third batch was also leaked, which was dubbed "The Fappening 3".


Reactions

Actress
Lena Dunham Lena Dunham (, born May 13, 1986) is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is known as the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series ''Girls (TV series), Girls'' (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy ...
pleaded on Twitter for people not to view the photos, arguing that in doing so "you are violating these women over and over again. It's not okay." Actress
Emma Watson Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is an English actress and activist. Known for her roles in both blockbusters and independent films, as well as for her women's rights work, she has received a selection of accolades, includi ...
condemned not only the leak but "the accompanying comments n social mediathat show such a lack of empathy." Actors
Seth Rogen Seth Aaron Rogen (; born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian and filmmaker. Originally a stand-up comedian in Vancouver, he moved to Los Angeles for a part in Judd Apatow's series '' Freaks and Geeks'', and then got a part o ...
and Lucas Neff also spoke out against the hackers and people who posted the pictures. Justin Verlander, then a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, told the media prior to a game against the
Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...
that he keeps his private life private and would rather focus on the Tigers' race with the Kansas City Royals for the
AL Central The American League Central is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. This division was formed in the realignment of 1994 by moving three teams from the American League West and two teams from the American League East. Its teams are all loc ...
title than be a distraction to his teammates. Security analysts have stated that the breach could have been prevented through the use of
two-factor authentication Multi-factor authentication (MFA; encompassing two-factor authentication, or 2FA, along with similar terms) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting ...
, while a ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' writer recommended completely shutting down the iCloud "Photo Stream" feature (which automatically uploads photos taken with an
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
device to iCloud servers). In an interview with ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', Apple CEO
Tim Cook Timothy Donald Cook (born November 1, 1960) is an American business executive who has been the chief executive officer of Apple Inc. since 2011. Cook previously served as the company's chief operating officer under its co-founder Steve Jobs ...
stated that in response to the leak, the company planned to take additional steps to protect the privacy and security of iCloud users in the future. Notifications will be provided whenever data is restored to a device via iCloud and after logging into iCloud via a web browser, in addition to existing notifications when a user's iCloud password is changed. Additionally, Apple will broaden and encourage the use of
two-factor authentication Multi-factor authentication (MFA; encompassing two-factor authentication, or 2FA, along with similar terms) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting ...
in future versions of its software and operating systems, such as the then-upcoming
iOS 8 iOS 8 is the eighth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 7. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 2, 2014, and was released on September 17, ...
. In conclusion, he emphasized that "we want to do everything we can do to protect our customers, because we are as outraged if not more so than they are." Jennifer Lawrence contacted authorities and her publicist stated that the authorities would prosecute anyone who posted leaked images of her. ''Forbes'' columnist Joseph Steinberg questioned whether the reactions by law enforcement and technology providers indicated that celebrities were being treated differently from ordinary Americans, which, in the case of law enforcement, may be illegal. On October 1, 2014,
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
was threatened with a $100 million lawsuit by lawyer Martin Singer on behalf of unnamed victims of the leak, alleging that Google had refused to respond to requests for the images to be removed from its platforms (including
Blogger A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
and
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
), "
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to act expeditiously, and responsibly to remove the images", and "knowingly accommodating, facilitating, and perpetuating the unlawful conduct". In an interview with '' Vanity Fair'', victim Jennifer Lawrence called the leak a "sex crime" and a "sexual violation"; she added, "Anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame." This view was contrasted by another victim of the leak,
Emily Ratajkowski Emily O'Hara Ratajkowski (, ; born June 7, 1991) is an American model and actress. Born in London to American parents and raised in Encinitas, California, Ratajkowski began acting as a child before she gained a recurring role on the Nickelodeon ...
, who told ''GQ'', "A lot of people who were victims of
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said anyone who looks at these pictures should feel guilty, but I just don't think that's fair", and "I'm not sure that anyone who Googles it is necessarily a criminal. I think the people who stole the photos are".


Investigation

The
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
said it was "aware of the allegations concerning computer intrusions and the unlawful release of material involving high profile individuals, and is addressing the matter." Similarly, Apple stated that it had been investigating whether a security breach of the iCloud service was responsible for the leaked photographs, as per the company's commitment to user privacy. On September 2, 2014, Apple reported that the leaked images were the result of compromised accounts, using "a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet". In October 2014, the FBI searched a house in
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,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
and seized several computers, cellphones and storage drives after tracking the source of a hacking attack to an IP address linked to an individual named Emilio Herrera. A related search warrant application mentioned eight unidentified high profile victims. According to law enforcement officials, Herrera was just one of several people under investigation and the FBI carried out various searches across the country.


Guilty pleas

In March 2016, 36-year-old Ryan Collins of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, agreed to plead guilty to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information resulting in an 18-month sentence. While no victims were named in the court documents, numerous media outlets connected Collins' case to the breach. During the investigation, it was found that Collins phished by sending e-mails to the victims that looked like they had been sent by Apple or Google, warning the victims that their accounts might be compromised and asking for their account details. The victims would enter their passwords, and Collins gained access to their accounts, downloading e-mails and iCloud backups. In October 2016, Collins was sentenced to 18 months in prison. In August 2016, 28-year-old Edward Majerczyk of Chicago, agreed to plead guilty to a similar phishing scheme, although authorities believe he worked independently and he was not accused of selling the images or posting them online. On January 24, 2017, Majerczyk was sentenced to nine months in prison and was ordered to pay $5,700 in restitution to cover the counseling services of one unnamed celebrity victim. Emilio Herrera, also from Chicago, had first been named in the press in 2014; he pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information in October 2017. Herrera had accessed the accounts of unnamed celebrities and others but was not accused of being involved in leaking or sharing the photos and videos he obtained. He was sentenced to 16 months in jail in March 2018. In April 2018, 26-year-old George Garofano of
North Branford, Connecticut North Branford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 13,544 at the 2020 census. The town is primarily known for agriculture and for other points of interest including Lake Gaillard and Northford Ice Pavili ...
, pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information. Garofano's attorney said he had been led into the phishing scheme by criminals. On August 29, 2018, a federal court sentenced Garofano to eight months in prison. On October 22, 2018, Christopher Brannan, a former Virginia teacher, became the fifth man to be convicted in relation to the hacking. Brannan pled guilty to federal charges of aggravated identity theft and unauthorized access to a protected computer. Through a phishing expedition, he hacked more than 200 people. In addition to his celebrity victims, Brannan targeted his underage sister-in-law, as well as teachers and students at the school where he used to teach. Brannan was sentenced to 34 months in prison on March 1, 2019.


See also

*
Criticism of Apple Inc. The corporate practices of Apple include Apple Inc.'s impact on the environment, relationships with governments, litigation it has been party to, its manufacturing practices, market impact, its media relations, product-related practices, and paym ...
*
Edison Chen photo scandal Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...
* Imagery of nude celebrities *
List of "-gate" scandals and controversies This is a list of scandals or controversies whose names include a ''-gate'' suffix, by analogy with the Watergate scandal, as well as other incidents to which the suffix has (often facetiously) been applied. This list also includes controversi ...
*
Sexting Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or videos, primarily between mobile phones. It may also include the use of a computer or any digital device. The term was first popularized early in the 21st ...


References


External links


Hacked Celebrity iCloud Accounts
nbsp;– Technical analysis of security breach
Full list of celebrities allegedly affected by nude photo leak
at '' Variety Latino'' () {{Hacking in the 2010s 2014 controversies 2014 controversies in the United States 2014 in computing Celebrity Cloud storage Hacking in the 2010s Internet privacy Internet security Nude photography Privacy controversies and disputes Obscenity controversies in photography History of Apple Inc.