Apps and Software By James Plafke Sep. 2, 2014 1:25 pm
As you might have seen practically everywhere during*this Labor Day weekend, a plethora of nude photos and videos of celebrities, models, and even Olympians were leaked. The leak originated from 4chan and porn-based offshoot image board AnonIB. Considering the names of the celebrities involved in the leak –*Hunger Games*star and Hollywood darling*Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Disney and Nickelodeon actresses, models, and other assorted television and movie stars — news of the leaks spread about as fast as anything can on the internet. Whatever you read about the leaks, there’s one thing you should know: at the moment, nothing has been confirmed, and no one — save the people who originally obtained the images — knows anything.
Reading about the leaks on various news outlets, you might notice a running trend: inconsistency. The event has been described*using contradictory timelines. Some outlets say it began on 4chan, others say AnonIB — even Deadspin reported that they were contacted and offered to purchase the nude photos weeks before they made their way on to image boards.
This is what actually happened.
[h=3]The timeline[/h]As far as anyone can tell, the initial mention of the cache of photos, barring private sale inquiries, began on AnonIB on August 26. A Jennifer Lawrence thread — in the celebrity photographs section — was bumped by a user pointing out that people on the site’s stolen images section claimed to have nude pictures of Lawrence. As AnonIB was created years ago in what was essentially a 4chan mutiny, the two image boards have very close ties, and 4chan quickly took notice of the purported leaks. An alphabetical list of female celebrities was posted on 4chan — many times, and often without context — which appeared to be*a list of the celebrities whose photographs were contained in the cache.
Images were slowly being leaked on both AnonIB and 4chan, with Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton initially garnering the most attention due to both their status in Hollywood and the sheer amount of photographs that existed.
The celebrity list was massive, but little proof was provided aside from the initial image leaks. Soon after, though, anonymous users began posting images of organized, labeled folders filled with supposed nudes. On August 31, the floodgates opened, which revealed not only more pictures of both Lawrence and Upton, but a startling number of female celebrities from all walks of fame.
The event was dubbed the punny “The Fappening” for obvious reasons. Reddit joined in by creating a subreddit dedicated to the leaks. 4chan and (to a lesser extent at this point) AnonIB became the places for the leaks, and Reddit became the place that organized everything. Many users involved commented how this was the first time both 4chan and Reddit worked together, rather than remaining at odds.
Since Sunday night, new pictures of previously leaked celebrities are still being revealed, though it has slowed to a crawl. Mainly, they’re censored, and the posters are asking for money in exchange for removing the censors. For the most part, though, it appears The Fappening has come to a halt. Some celebrities claimed their pictures are*fake, some claimed they’re real, and both 4chan and Reddit have spent more than enough time proving or disproving the legitimacy of various images.
[h=3]Who is responsible?[/h]
The very nature of 4chan and AnonIB — anonymous image boards — make it so there isn’t really a way to tell. There are different stories flying around the web. One story suggests that 26-year-old software engineer Bryan Hamade is responsible, but in an interview with The Daily Mail, he claims that he simply tried to resell them for Bitcoins as part of a scam. He was identified*through sensitive information he neglected to obscure in screenshots he used as “proof” that he had images to sell. His claim as being a scammer largely checks out, considering someone as savvy as a hacker who could obtain so many celebrity nudes would likely know to hide such blatant information.
Another story, originating from a 4chan comment, claims that the nudes were collected over years by an deep web*celebrity nude trading ring. Considering it’s not too difficult to find out about nefarious things that take place on the deep web — and leaked celebrity nudes are relatively common on the surface web by comparison — it didn’t make sense why this was the first time anyone heard about the trading ring. The anonymous poster states that the ring was able to stay secret for so long because of a difficult-to-pay entrance fee that consisted of contributing your own stolen, never-before-seen celebrity leak.
According to the above poster, the members of the ring valued their stolen nudes — the same way you’d value any rare collector’s item. However, the “value” of the nudes would lessen if copies were given out, so the ring kept mum, but would occasionally sell them for a high price. Supposedly, one “rich kid” had enough money to purchase some sample pictures and posted copies on the internet, which prompted some of the ring members to join in now that the lid had blown off their operation.
The most widely reported theory simply suggests that there was a vulnerability in Apple’s iCloud that allowed for brute force attacks — entering logins over and over again until one works. This theory came from an anonymous poster on AnonIB who claimed to be “trading celebs and ripping iclouds.” The iCloud vulnerability did exist, but some of the nudes — confirmed by actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead — were from long ago and deleted; they likely weren’t obtained from some recent, massive iCloud breach.
[h=3]How did it happen?[/h]For those following the scandal from the beginning, there’s no proof whatsoever that iCloud is to*blame, or that it’s even possible. Metadata of the Kate Upton pictures show that some photos were taken as recently as April of this year, but Winstead’s claim suggests that this isn’t the case for everyone. If there were someone or a group of people competent enough to bring down a real-life Gibson, it doesn’t make total sense that celebrity nudes would be the only targets. Yes, people want to see Katniss topless, but surely politicians have discussed sensitive and “valuable” information through the medium of vulnerable technology.
The underground trading ring makes the most sense. Collecting pictures from individual attempts using various hacking, phishing, and social engineering methods throughout the years is a very*logical explanation, but considering the source, there’s no proof whatsoever.
At the moment, everyone is in the dark. If you’re reading about cloud storage vulnerabilities, an underground trading ring, or even tech support employees scraping celebrities’ phones for pictures over a number of years, there is currently no proof at all. Everything is conjecture mainly based on a few sentences posted by anonymous people*on internet boards*that are famous for causing trouble.
More...
Reading about the leaks on various news outlets, you might notice a running trend: inconsistency. The event has been described*using contradictory timelines. Some outlets say it began on 4chan, others say AnonIB — even Deadspin reported that they were contacted and offered to purchase the nude photos weeks before they made their way on to image boards.
This is what actually happened.
[h=3]The timeline[/h]As far as anyone can tell, the initial mention of the cache of photos, barring private sale inquiries, began on AnonIB on August 26. A Jennifer Lawrence thread — in the celebrity photographs section — was bumped by a user pointing out that people on the site’s stolen images section claimed to have nude pictures of Lawrence. As AnonIB was created years ago in what was essentially a 4chan mutiny, the two image boards have very close ties, and 4chan quickly took notice of the purported leaks. An alphabetical list of female celebrities was posted on 4chan — many times, and often without context — which appeared to be*a list of the celebrities whose photographs were contained in the cache.
Images were slowly being leaked on both AnonIB and 4chan, with Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton initially garnering the most attention due to both their status in Hollywood and the sheer amount of photographs that existed.
The celebrity list was massive, but little proof was provided aside from the initial image leaks. Soon after, though, anonymous users began posting images of organized, labeled folders filled with supposed nudes. On August 31, the floodgates opened, which revealed not only more pictures of both Lawrence and Upton, but a startling number of female celebrities from all walks of fame.
The event was dubbed the punny “The Fappening” for obvious reasons. Reddit joined in by creating a subreddit dedicated to the leaks. 4chan and (to a lesser extent at this point) AnonIB became the places for the leaks, and Reddit became the place that organized everything. Many users involved commented how this was the first time both 4chan and Reddit worked together, rather than remaining at odds.
Since Sunday night, new pictures of previously leaked celebrities are still being revealed, though it has slowed to a crawl. Mainly, they’re censored, and the posters are asking for money in exchange for removing the censors. For the most part, though, it appears The Fappening has come to a halt. Some celebrities claimed their pictures are*fake, some claimed they’re real, and both 4chan and Reddit have spent more than enough time proving or disproving the legitimacy of various images.
[h=3]Who is responsible?[/h]
The very nature of 4chan and AnonIB — anonymous image boards — make it so there isn’t really a way to tell. There are different stories flying around the web. One story suggests that 26-year-old software engineer Bryan Hamade is responsible, but in an interview with The Daily Mail, he claims that he simply tried to resell them for Bitcoins as part of a scam. He was identified*through sensitive information he neglected to obscure in screenshots he used as “proof” that he had images to sell. His claim as being a scammer largely checks out, considering someone as savvy as a hacker who could obtain so many celebrity nudes would likely know to hide such blatant information.
Another story, originating from a 4chan comment, claims that the nudes were collected over years by an deep web*celebrity nude trading ring. Considering it’s not too difficult to find out about nefarious things that take place on the deep web — and leaked celebrity nudes are relatively common on the surface web by comparison — it didn’t make sense why this was the first time anyone heard about the trading ring. The anonymous poster states that the ring was able to stay secret for so long because of a difficult-to-pay entrance fee that consisted of contributing your own stolen, never-before-seen celebrity leak.
According to the above poster, the members of the ring valued their stolen nudes — the same way you’d value any rare collector’s item. However, the “value” of the nudes would lessen if copies were given out, so the ring kept mum, but would occasionally sell them for a high price. Supposedly, one “rich kid” had enough money to purchase some sample pictures and posted copies on the internet, which prompted some of the ring members to join in now that the lid had blown off their operation.
The most widely reported theory simply suggests that there was a vulnerability in Apple’s iCloud that allowed for brute force attacks — entering logins over and over again until one works. This theory came from an anonymous poster on AnonIB who claimed to be “trading celebs and ripping iclouds.” The iCloud vulnerability did exist, but some of the nudes — confirmed by actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead — were from long ago and deleted; they likely weren’t obtained from some recent, massive iCloud breach.
[h=3]How did it happen?[/h]For those following the scandal from the beginning, there’s no proof whatsoever that iCloud is to*blame, or that it’s even possible. Metadata of the Kate Upton pictures show that some photos were taken as recently as April of this year, but Winstead’s claim suggests that this isn’t the case for everyone. If there were someone or a group of people competent enough to bring down a real-life Gibson, it doesn’t make total sense that celebrity nudes would be the only targets. Yes, people want to see Katniss topless, but surely politicians have discussed sensitive and “valuable” information through the medium of vulnerable technology.
The underground trading ring makes the most sense. Collecting pictures from individual attempts using various hacking, phishing, and social engineering methods throughout the years is a very*logical explanation, but considering the source, there’s no proof whatsoever.
At the moment, everyone is in the dark. If you’re reading about cloud storage vulnerabilities, an underground trading ring, or even tech support employees scraping celebrities’ phones for pictures over a number of years, there is currently no proof at all. Everything is conjecture mainly based on a few sentences posted by anonymous people*on internet boards*that are famous for causing trouble.
More...
