Apple denies system compromise in selfie leaks
Apple claims that after 40hrs of investigation, it has discovered certain celebrity accounts have been targeted, but that none of its iCloud or Find My iPhone systems have been breached.
What the fruity firm actually said was "None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple's systems including iCloud or Find My iPhone" [our emphasis]
This latest scandal emerged after compromising celebrity photos started to appear on anonymous a number of bulletin boards including 4Chan. Many of the pictures have been confirm authentic and the victims include Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Kate Upton and Ariana Grande.
Apple's argument is that their systems weren't compromised per se; only individual accounts were breached as a result of highly targeted brute-force password attacks. This might be true, but it sidesteps the fact its websites should implement adequate security measures to protect its users from these brute-force attacks in the first place.
Of course these celebrities cannot be blamed for the fiasco in any way. They're the victims here, trapped in their own cults of celebrity. But could it be argued they were at least a little naive to openly transfer files of this type over wifi/wireless connections? I don't know. But it certainly won't do Apple any favours on the eve of its iOS8 launch.
In the end, like so much on the Web, this all comes down to privacy and trust. And maybe it's no bad thing for cloud / social media users to get a wakeup call on that front.