Here we go again with another round of The Fappening which was also known as Celebgate.
The Fappening 2.0, or Celebgate 2.0, started with private photos of Emma Watson and Amanda Seyfried circulating on the “dark web” and then 4chan last week before the images made it to Reddit.
Softpedia reported that more private images of celebrities are also circulating online, including pictures of the following actresses and models: “Rose McGowan (actress), Katie Cassidy (actress), Alyssa Arce (model), Rhona Mitra (actress), Analeigh Tipton (figure skater & actress), Iliza Shlesinger (comedian), Jilliain Murray (actress), Paige (WWE star), Dylan Penn (model, daughter of Sean Penn), Kristanna Loken (actress), April Love Geary (model), Trieste Kelly Dunn (actress), and Lili Simmons (actress).” The article claims that the leak also included footage of at least one celebrity engaging in sexual acts.
Last week Hacker News claimed,
“According to a screenshot from an original 4chan thread, unknown hackers will be posting more intimate photos of female celebrities, including Kylie Jenner, Marisa Tomei, Jennifer Lawrence and several others, over the next few days, which indicates it’s just the beginning of The Fappening 2.0.”
But that’s not all, according to The Sun, which reported ITV’s This Morning host Holly Willoughby is reportedly being “taunted by hackers” who claim they will publish “X-rated photos” of her. An unnamed source close to Willoughby said there are no such pictures. “Holly is unconcerned as these are baseless accusation as far as she is concerned.” Former Made In Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh was also allegedly hacked and is being threatened.
Various people claim there are private photos of many more celebrities allegedly circulating online already or that will be released soon. At this time, it’s unknown how many celebrities will have their privacy violated during The Fappening 2.0 as their private pictures are posted and shared again and again online.
Last week, actress Emma Watson took legal action after her photos were stolen and posted online. Her spokesman said,
“Photos from a clothes fitting Emma had with a stylist a couple of years ago have been stolen. They are not nude photographs. Lawyers have been instructed and we are not commenting further.”
Attorneys for actress Amanda Seyfried also took action. TMZ posted a redacted letter (pdf) which demanded for the images posted on Celeb Jihad to be taken down and for all evidence related to the images to be preserved. The letter claimed that “several very private photographs of Ms. Seyfried either in various states of nudity or in intimate moments with her former boyfriend” were “wrongfully obtained by a third party or parties without Ms. Seyfried’s knowledge or consent.”
Seyfried’s attorneys demanded electronic and paper evidence be preserved, including “all emails, text messages, chat logs, screenshots or other electronic or paper documents stored on the work or home computers or mobile devices of your employees or on the cloud.”
The original Fappening, which included leaked sexy photos of 100 celebrities, occurred in September 2014. Apple claimed that iCloud was not breached, but the photo leaks were a result of targeted attacks. Naked photos of actress Jennifer Lawrence were uploaded to her Wikipedia page on the same day she called her stolen sexting photos “a sex crime” and “not a scandal.”
Several hackers were arrested in Celebgate 1.0, including Edward Majerczyk; he “plead guilty to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, specifically, one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information.”
Majerczyk admitted to phishing his victims, sending emails which appeared to be from security accounts of ISPs; he collected usernames and passwords entered by his victims. The Department of Justice reported that from November 23, 2013 through August 2014, “Majerczyk accessed at least 300 accounts, and at least 30 accounts belonging to celebrities.”
This time around, The Sun reported, “Internet trolls are thought to have guessed passwords of stars’ social media and messaging services.” But don’t be surprised if we learn that social engineering and phishing played a major role in the newest round of The Fappening.
This article originally appeared on the IDG Network by Darlene Storm for Computer World
