TORONTO – Recently released court documents reveal that FBI investigators raided a home in Chicago after hundreds of private nude celebrity photos were leaked online late last year.
The FBI seized computers and cellphones from the home in October. An affidavit unsealed in April showed that a computer found in the home was linked to several female celebrities’ Apple iCloud accounts that were hacked.
In September of last year, nude photos of a-listers, including Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst and Kate Upton, were posted to the image sharing forum 4chan by anonymous users and were quickly spread on social media sites.
While Apple denied reports that the leaks stemmed from any sort of security flaw within its iCloud platform, it prompted the tech giant to implement more security measures to protect its users.
READ MORE: Apple to add iCloud security alerts following celeb photo hack
Lawrence, who spoke publically about the leaks in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, called the leaks a “sex crime.”
“It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime. It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting,” the actress said.
The Chicago raid is part of an ongoing investigation into how the photos of celebrities were stolen and posted without permission.
The affidavit identified eight celebrities by their initials only – AS, CH, HS, JM, OW, AK, EB and AH.
The FBI said no charges have been filed in relation to the raid.
However, according to a report by Gawker’s Sam Briddle, the iCloud hacking went well beyond celebrity accounts.
Briddle reported the affidavit also revealed the suspect’s IP address was used to access approximately 572 different iCloud accounts.
READ MORE: How to protect your data in the cloud
“In total, the unique iCloud accounts were accessed 3,263 times,” read the affidavit published by Gawker.
The document also revealed more information about how the suspect obtained the private photos that were later posted online.
In relation to the leak of A.S.’s photos the document said she reported being locked out of her online accounts between April and May 2014, months before the leaks happened. Presumably, the hacker was trying to access the accounts with various passwords and was locked out.
Similarly, in relation to A.H.’s photos, the document said some of the photos were sent to her fiancé through iMessage, but others were stored on her phone and never sent.
Comments