Nude photos of Rihanna, Kim Kardashian And Avril Lavigne leaked online by ‘iCloud hacker’

An array of female celebrities, including Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Avril Lavigne and US soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo, appear to be the latest victims of the hacking ring, with dozens of nude and other x-rated photos leaked online over the weekend.

On Saturday, the raunchy home made snaps appeared on 4chan, the website on which naked photos of stars, including Hunger Games’ Jennifer Lawrence, Big Bang Theory’s Kaley Cuoco, Sports Illustrated model Kate Upton, Nickelodeon star Victoria Justice, actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Coronation Street’s Michelle Keegan and underage gymnast McKayla Maroney, were published on September 1.

The website removed the photos as part of its new copyright infringement policy, but only after they were shared and trending on Twitter.

Nude photos and sex tapes

Other celebs to allegedly have their photos leaked this weekend were actress/singer Vanessa Hugdens, actress Lake Bell, former Disney stars Aly and AJ Michalka, Mary-Kate Olsen, comedienne Aubrey Plaza, Bring It On star Gabrielle Union, model Emily Ratajkowski, actress Kate Bosworth and Heroes’ Hayden Panettiere, while more photos of Jennifer Lawrence and Kaley Cuoco were published.

If the photos of Vanessa Hugdens are confirmed as real it will be the third time she has had naked photos released to the public without her consent. In 2007, a sex tape Kim Kardashian made with then-boyfriend Ray J was shared online without her consent.

Commenting on leaks of personal photos earlier this month, Kim Kardashian had said: “I think it’s a wake-up call for people to make sure they have every privacy setting. It seems like there are a lot of people that love to spend their time hacking peoples’ information and that’s just a scary thing.”

It is still unclear how the images were obtained. However, metadata indicates the majority of the images were taken using Apple devices, leading some to suggest they were taken from iCloud accounts. iCloud is designed to allow Mac, iPad and iPhone users to synchronise images, settings, calendar information, and other data between devices.

Apple said it is looking into these claims. “We take user privacy very seriously and are actively investigating this report,” the company stated. Last year, Apple added two-factor authentication to iCloud.

The FBI continues its investigation into the string of nude celebrity photo leaks, which has been dubbed the ‘fappening’.

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