Kirsten Dunst has emerged as the first celebrity affected by the massive release of stolen private images to publicly point a finger at Apple's iCloud service.In a tweet, the actress said "Thank you iCloud" alongside an emoji of a pizza and an emoji of a smiling poop.
It has not been confirmed that any of several hundred images were stolen from celebrities' iCloud accounts, though security experts say it's certainly plausible.
Re/Code has reported that Apple is looking into the apparent hacks, and quotes company spokeswoman Natalie Kerris as saying "we take user privacy very seriously and are actively investigating this report".
An Apple Australia spokeswoman said on Monday the company wasn't commenting at this time.
The FBI has also confirmed they are joining the hunt for the hacker or hackers responsible.
"The FBI is aware of the allegations concerning computer intrusions and the unlawful release of material involving high profile individuals, and is addressing the matter," said Laura Eimiller, spokesperson for the FBI in Los Angeles. "Any further comment would be inappropriate at this time."
Digital sleaths used their skills to identify at least two individuals who they say could be behind the original posting of the images, but one of the people, Bryan Hamade, has since claimed he was merely trying to "pull one over" on 4chan to mkae some quick money.
The stolen images emerged yesterday, when a search for Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton or related hash tags on Twitter yielded hundreds of retweets of several nude or near-nude images.
"This is a flagrant violation of privacy," a spokesperson for The Hunger Games star Lawrence said in a statement Sunday. "The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence."
The hacker behind the stolen photos first posted them on the image-based online bulletin board 4chan, according to BuzzFeed.
A 4chan user was first to point to iCloud as the source of the images, and security experts have since pointed out Apple's cloud-based back-up service would be vulnerable if the password was not strong and the user had not set up two-step verification.
Until recently hackers could also exploit the fact that iCloud didn't lock accounts after multiple attempts to guess passwords, engadget has reported.
In 2012, Christopher Chaney, 36, of Jacksonville, Florida, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for hacking into the email accounts of more than 50 people in the entertainment industry in order to gain access to nude photos and private information.
Chaney, who was arrested after an FBI investigation dubbed Operation Hackerazzi, said that he hacked into the accounts of film star Scarlett Johansson and other celebrities because he was addicted to spying on their personal lives.
By Fairfax Media with Los Angeles Times
