2014 celebrity pictures hack

On August 31, 2014 leaked pictures were posted on the website 4chan that were allegedly taken through an exploit of iCloud, where iPhone photos are automatically synced. The photographs were allegedly sold for bitcoin.
Victims of the hack were alleged to include Jennifer Lawrence, Jenny McCarthy, Rihanna, Kate Upton, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kirsten Dunst, Ariana Grande, and Victoria Justice. Lawrence and Winstead confirmed the authenticity of the photos, while Grande and Justice denied the photos were of them. Attempts made to suppress them were unsuccessful.
Celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton posted the photos on his blog after their release, but shortly took them down and issued an apology, saying he had acted in bad taste.
A major site of activity was on the link sharing website reddit, where a subreddit was created to share the photos and gained 75,000 subscriptions in a single day. Reddit admins were criticized for allowing this to take place in an alleged violation of their anti-doxing rules.
The photos were being passed around privately for at least a couple weeks before their public release on August 31, although the details are unclear. There are claims that many more unreleased photos, including video exists.
Reaction
The photo leak was condemned by The Guardian, as were those who continued to share the photos. BuzzFeed wrote that there was less slut shaming of the victims than was usual for a celebrity photo hack.
Shortly after the photos were posted online, an article in Forbes advised people not to use iCloud to store sensitive photos and another gave instructions as to how to turn off iCloud altogether.
The incident has been given many names, including "The Fappening" (a reference to internet slang for masturbation). and "Celebgate" (a reference to Watergate)
Investigation
The FBI said that it was "aware of the allegations concerning computer intrusions and the unlawful release of material involving high profile individuals, and is addressing the matter." Jennifer Lawrence contacted authorities and her publicist has stated that the authorities will prosecute anyone who posts leaked images of her. Forbes columnist, Joseph Steinberg, questioned whether the reactions by law enforcement and technology providers indicated that celebrities were being treated differently than ordinary Americans, which, in the case of law enforcement, may be illegal.
Apple said that it is investigating whether a security breach of their iCloud service was responsible for the leaked photographs stating that they "take user privacy very seriously". The security breach may be related to a vulnerability in Apple's Find My iPhone service which allows hackers to run a script which repeatedly guesses user passwords until the correct password is discovered. Apple has since fixed the flaw. Security experts said that the security breach could have been prevented had two-factor authentication been enabled. "In general Apple has been a little late to the game in offering this kind of protection, and doesn’t advertise it," said Darien Kindlund, director of threat research at security firm FireEye.

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