2014 celebrity nude photo leak

2014 celebrity nude photo leak
DateAugust 31, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-08-31)
Also known as
  • Celebgate
  • The Fappening
Type
TargetCelebrities
VerdictPleaded guilty
Convictions
Sentence
  • Imprisonment
    • Brannan: 34 months
    • Collins: 18 months
    • Garofano: 8 months
    • Herrera: 16 months
    • Majerczyk: 9 months
  • Restitution costs
    • Majerczyk: $5,700

On August 31, 2014, a collection of nearly five hundred private pictures of various celebrities, mostly women, with many containing nudity, were posted on the imageboard 4chan, and swiftly disseminated by other users on websites and social networks such as Imgur and Reddit. The leak was dubbed "The Fappening" or "Celebgate" by the public. The images were initially believed to have been obtained via a breach of Apple's cloud services suite iCloud,[1][2] or a security issue in the iCloud API which allowed them to make unlimited attempts at guessing victims' passwords.[3][4] Apple claimed in a press release that access was gained via spear phishing attacks.[5][6]

The incident was met with varied reactions from the media and fellow celebrities. Critics argued the leak was a major invasion of privacy for the photos' subjects, while some of the alleged subjects denied the images' authenticity. The leak also prompted increased concern from analysts surrounding the privacy and security of cloud computing services such as iCloud—with a particular emphasis on their use to store sensitive, private information.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2014-09-01 Guardian: Arthur 1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2014-09-02 Washington Post was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2014-09-01 Irish Independent was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2015-01-02 International Business Times was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2014-09-02 Apple was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2014-09-02 Verge was invoked but never defined (see the help page).