Just a few days before the major launch of Apple’s latest products like iPhones and Apple Watch, there was a major security breach that was reported in the international media. Many top celebrities had their iCloud accounts hacked and nude photos of the celebrities, some real while others fake were exposed to the entire world by these hackers. The exposure of these celebrity nude photos was very embarrassing for the celebrities targeted and was also highly embarrassing for Apple. Apple in a few days was to launch Apple Pay and this leaked nude photos incident could not have come at a worse time for Apple. Apple Pay needs user’s financial information. The question many critics were asking was if Apple cannot ensure security for the nude photos then how can users trust Apple with financial information?
Why this is a Major Security Threat?
Apple Accounts are used by millions of people all over the world when they use Apple products like iPhones and iPads. More often, it is the celebrity accounts that are hacked in comparison with accounts of ordinary people. However that does not mean that hackers do not target common people. But how did the celebrity nude photos get leaked in the first place? How did hacker get the email addresses and passwords of the celebrities to hack into their accounts? They may have got the email accounts and the answers to the security questions attached to the email accounts. Speculation was that the online storage service “Find My iPhone” could have a security hole that would have enabled the hackers. However Apple dismissed this and also said, that particular security hole has been patched.
Celebrities and regular people, all use the same technology that is available. So it is not a very surprising thing that celebrities whose leaked nude photos appeared online did not have extra security compared to regular people. Online security however is a matter of grave importance today whether you are a common man or a celebrity. The following are some of the ways in which online security can be boosted so that such embarrassing episodes do not happen to you:
How to Be More Secure Online:
• It is believed that some celebrities who were attacked did not even know that their photos were on iCloud. This is because if the iCloud Photo Stream service is enabled it automatically saves photos clicked on the Apple device to the iCloud for 30 days. Disable settings like “Photo Stream” or “Contact Sync” that you do not need.
• “Two Step Verification” is an option available for email accounts. It is an extra layer of protection and setting this up for the Apple ID is a wise option.
• “Security Questions” attached to the account are mostly personal in nature. So giving fake answers stops others from knowing the answers to the questions. This is a handy trick to protect your account.
It is not just Apple accounts, but other email accounts and cloud accounts that can be vulnerable to threat. In the wake of these nude photos of celebrities being exposed we must try and be as secure as possible online.
