Women warned of photo hack attacks

UNDREDS of local women may have had their private photos posted on a porn website by hackers who have plundered online “cloud” storage accounts.

A Southend woman was horrified to find pictures of several friends on a porn site, used by men to share provocative images and post lurid comments.

The woman, who asked not to be named, was alerted by a warning on the Facebook website. She then passed on the warning to friends, who then discovered many of their own Facebook friends had also been targeted.

The woman, who works as a marketing executive, said: “I gather the main culprit is acquiring the majority of the images via private iCloud accounts.”

Apple’s iCloud system allows users of the company’s computers, iPad tablets and iPhones to save copies of their photos to online “cloud” accounts, which are protected by passwords and should only be accessible to the users themselves.

Recent cases of explicit images of celebrities being stolen from such accounts and posted on websites have made the headlines.

The woman said: “I can’t stand by and watch this. Everyone is bothered when celebrities get targeted, but ordinary women need to be protected as well.

“It’s a sick and degrading sex crime, inflicted upon the girls I know.

“The site harbours hundreds of sexual images, some posted by men in the local area. This is not the first time. The first site was shut down after it was reported.”

Woman said she had recognised many faces on the site, adding: “They are not the type of people who would do this knowingly. One girl has been in a relationship for four years and any photos would have been taken by her boyfriend.

“Another has been with her boyfriend for three years. I have no problem with what people choose to do with their bodies, but the way they are being exploited is sick.”

The woman reported the site to police, who referred her to the Internet Watch Foundation.

The foundation said because none of the women appeared to be under 16, and it didn’t involve illegal pornographic activity, it was unable to shut it down.

The woman said: “What is really upsetting is one woman just seemed to accept there was nothing she could do.

She felt she’d been caught out and this was her punishment.”

A spokesman for the Internet Watch Foundation said: “Our main area of work is with child sexual abuse, involving people under 16. We can only take action if this is the case or if it involves pornography that contravenes UK law.”

A spokeswoman for Essex Police said: “Incidents of the this kind need to be notified to the owners of the site or any social media sites the photos, which have been obtained without permission are featured on.”

IN August, there was a media storm when almost 500 private images of celebrities were posted on the 4chan website and later shared on social networking sites.

Actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Vanessa Hudgens and singer Rihanna, pictured, were among those targeted.

The provocative images are believed to have been stolen by hackers who broke into Apple’s iCloud system, which allows users to store contacts, calendars, photos, music, and data online and get at it via computers, tablets, or smartphones.

Apple had allegedly been warned its accounts were vulnerable. The pictures were taken in what was described as a “very targeted attack”, using account information.

Apple is urging users to make the most of its security systems, which include its “two-step verification”

process. It also suggests they should use complex, hard-to-guess passwords and change them regularly.