Rihanna is one of the many new celebrity names whose naked photos were reportedly hacked and obtained without authorization by the same person who published nude photos of other celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence. Amid the attention surrounding the "massive hack," it is now believed that the trove of personal content may have not been retrieved via Apple's iCloud service as previously believed.
According to The Guardian, the leaked photos originated from 4chan from a hacker named Tristan. The website allegedly took down the posts quickly, but not before a screenshot of the list of celebrities has been made. The article says that the list of victims include Avril Lavigne, Kirsten Dunst, Winona Ryder, and Aubrey Plaza. Models Candice Swanepoel and Cara Delevingne were allegedly also part of the list. The Guardian also cited an expert who had seen the files and stated that the photos went as far back as December 2011, which eliminated the possibility that all of the images were hacked from the victims' phones. Moreover, The Independent noted that Tristan considers himself a "collector" instead of a "hacker" and is allegedly disappointed by the little money he earned after posting the samples.
Trend Micro's vice-president of security research, Rik Ferguson, also noted that even the alleged source of the posters were not claiming an Apple hack.
Apple has since released a statement that their iCloud service, "Find my iPhone" and stated that although some of the accounts were compromised, "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."
On the other hand, Ferguson is suggesting that there might be some guesswork of email-password combinations or phishing involved. Phishing is the act of discreetly securing personal information under the guise of authentic-looking fake sites.
Rihanna has yet to respond to the news about her allegedly leaked photos.
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