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FBI Widens Probe Of Naked Celebrity Photos

FBI Widens Probe Of Naked Celebrity Photos

Los Angeles (AFP) — The FBI vowed to widen a probe into the massive hacking of naked celebrity photos if necessary, after new reported leaks including nude shots of Kim Kardashian.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched an investigation earlier this month after a first batch of pictures, including of “Hunger Games” megastar Jennifer Lawrence, was published.

On Saturday U.S. media reported that more nude celebrity photos, including reality star Kardashian and actress Vanessa Hudgens, had been circulating on social media.

The pictures, also including U.S. soccer star Hope Solo, appeared briefly on 4chan and Reddit, before being removed, celebrity gossip site TMZ reported.

BuzzFeed said that personal videos and photos belonging to actresses Aubrey Plaza, Mary-Kate Olsen, Hayden Panettiere, and Leelee Sobieski were posted, in addition to previously unseen pictures of Lawrence.

“The FBI’s investigation into alleged computer intrusion/theft is continuing,” FBI Los Angeles spokeswoman Laura Eimiller told AFP Monday.

“I’m unable to comment on specifics with regard to alleged victims, but any individual who believes they are a victim of these violations is encouraged to report it, if not already engaged with law enforcement,” she added.

Hackers first released a trove of nude starlets’ photos on September 1, after snatching them from Apple’s iCloud in what the tech giant has called a “targeted attack”.

The company has denied its cloud storage system was breached, suggesting that the celebrities had their accounts hacked by using easy-to-guess passwords, or by giving up their personal data to cyber criminals posing as Apple, a technique known as “phishing”.

In addition to Lawrence, celebrities whose pictures were allegedly stolen and posted online in early September included model Kate Upton, singer Avril Lavigne, and actress Gabrielle Union.

AFP Photo/Astrid Stawiarz

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Fox News Twitter Hacked, Resulting in Tweets About Obama’s (Imaginary) Assassination

Apparently Fox News was the victim of some hackers intent on sullying its until-now clean journalistic reputation over the holiday weekend:

A series of alarming Twitter posts about President Obama appeared on Fox News’s Twitter account for political news early Monday morning, and the Web site for the cable television network said it was a victim of hacking.

The Twitter account, @foxnewspolitics, one of many operated by Fox News, claimed that the president had been fatally shot while campaigning in Iowa, but gave no source for the news. On Monday morning, FoxNews.com first posted a brief statement saying that the reports were incorrect, and that it regretted “any distress the false Tweets may have created.”

The six messages were removed around noon on Monday, about 10 hours after being posted, but not before attracting a flurry of attention.

Because of the seriousness of the content, containing graphic, though fictional, descriptions of the president’s death, senior Secret Service officials gathered Monday morning to discuss them, said a law enforcement official who requested anonymity because of the investigation into the matter.

A spokesman for the Secret Service, George Ogilvie, said, “We are investigating the matter and will be conducting appropriate follow-up.” The White House declined to comment.

In a statement Monday afternoon, Twitter indicated that its own servers were not broken into; instead, the e-mail account associated with the specific Twitter feed had been compromised, and from there the hacker or hackers had been able to gain access.

Twitter referred other questions about the incident to Fox News; a spokeswoman there did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The FoxNews.com Twitter account for political news, which has about 36,000 followers, had been dormant since Friday, but at about 2 a.m. Monday, a message was posted there that eerily presaged the posts that would follow about the president: “just regained full access to our Twitter and email. Happy 4th.” The next post said that the president “has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July indeed.”

With news that the VP just got on Twitter–Biden 2016 anyone?–we can be sure the Secret Service is watching this news medium with increasing skepticism, even as it shows its revolutionary muscle in countries from Iran to Belarus.

And Rubert Murdoch, owner of Fox News and a British tabloid that recently hacked a dead woman’s cell phone, can be confident his employees will return to doing their reportage on the serious issues confronting the nation. [The New York Times]