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iCloud Possibly Suffered A Privacy Breach Last Year That Apple Kept a Secret

iCloud Possibly Suffered A Privacy Breach Last Year That Apple Kept a Secret

Jan 30, 2019
Late last year when an unknown group of hackers stole secret access tokens for millions of Facebook accounts by taking advantage of a flaw in its website, the company disclosed the incident and informed its affected users. Similarly, when Twitter was hit by multiple vulnerabilities ( #1 , #2 , #3 ) in the last few months, the social media company disclosed those incidents and informed its affected users. And Guess What? Google is going to shut down its social media network Google+ in April this year after admitting two security flaws in its platform that exposed private data of hundreds of thousands of users to third-party developers. It turns out that Apple also possibly suffered a privacy breach late last year due to a bug in its platform that might have exposed some of your iCloud data to other users, but the company chose to keep the incident secret... maybe because it was not worth to disclose, or perhaps much more complicated. Last week, Turkish security researcher Me
Apple Transfers Chinese Users' iCloud Data to State-Controlled Data Centers

Apple Transfers Chinese Users' iCloud Data to State-Controlled Data Centers

Jul 18, 2018
There's terrible news for Apple users in China. Apple's Chinese data center partner has transferred iCloud data, belonging to 130 million China-based users, to a cloud storage service managed by a state-owned mobile telecom provider—raising concerns about privacy. Back in February this year, Apple moved the encryption keys and data of its Chinese iCloud users from its US servers to local servers on Chinese soil to comply with the new regulation of the Chinese government , despite concerns from human rights activists. For this Apple controversially signed a deal with Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (GCBD), a Chinese company who gained operation control over Apple's iCloud business in China earlier this year. Now, that sensitive data, which includes users' emails, text messages, pictures, and the encryption keys that protect it, has been passed on to Tianyi cloud storage service, a business venture managed by government-owned mobile operator China Telecom. In case you ar
CTEM 101 - Go Beyond Vulnerability Management with Continuous Threat Exposure Management

CTEM 101 - Go Beyond Vulnerability Management with Continuous Threat Exposure Management

Mar 12, 2024CTEM / Vulnerability Management
In a world of ever-expanding jargon, adding another FLA (Four-Letter Acronym) to your glossary might seem like the last thing you'd want to do. But if you are looking for ways to continuously reduce risk across your environment while making significant and consistent improvements to security posture, in our opinion, you probably want to consider establishing a  Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)  program.  CTEM is an approach to cyber risk management that combines attack simulation, risk prioritization, and remediation guidance in one coordinated process. The term Continuous Threat Exposure Management first appeared in the Gartner ® report, Implement a Continuous Threat Exposure Management Program (CTEM) (Gartner, 21 July 2022,). Since then, we have seen that organizations across the globe are seeing the benefits of this integrated, continual approach. Webinar: Why and How to Adopt the CTEM Framework XM Cyber is hosting a webinar featuring Gartner VP Analyst Pete Shoa
Apple Moves iCloud Data and Encryption Keys for Chinese Users to China

Apple Moves iCloud Data and Encryption Keys for Chinese Users to China

Feb 28, 2018
Apple has finally agreed to open a new Chinese data center next month to comply with the country's latest controversial data protection law. Apple will now move the cryptographic keys of its Chinese iCloud users in data centers run by a state-owned company called Cloud Big Data Industrial Development Co, despite concerns from human rights activists. In 2017, China passed a Cybersecurity Law that requires "critical information infrastructure operators" to store Chinese users' data within the country's borders, which likely forced Apple to partner with the new Chinese data center. And the icing on the cake is that Chinese government already has legislation called National Security Law, passed in 2015, which gives police the authority to demand companies help them bypass encryption or other security tools to access personal data. This is the first time when Apple is going to store encryption keys required to unlock iCloud accounts of its users outside the
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Fourth Fappening Hacker Admits to Stealing Celebrity Pics From iCloud Accounts

Fourth Fappening Hacker Admits to Stealing Celebrity Pics From iCloud Accounts

Jan 13, 2018
Almost three years after the massive leakage of high-profile celebrities' photos—well known as " The Fappening " or " Celebgate " scandal—a fourth hacker has been charged with hacking into over 250 Apple iCloud accounts belonged to Hollywood celebrities. A federal court has accused George Garofano , 26, of North Branford, of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, who had been arrested by the FBI. Garofano has admitted to illegally obtaining credentials for his victims' iCloud accounts using a phishing scheme, which eventually allowed him to steal personal information on his victims, including sensitive and private photographs and videos. Among celebrities whose photographs were posted online back in 2014 are Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian, Kirsten Dunst, and Kate Upton. Also, female victims also include American Olympic gold medallist Misty May Treanor and actors Alexandra Chando, Kelli Garner and Lauren O'Neil. Between April 2013 to Oct
Police Arrest Man Potentially Linked to Group Threatening to Wipe Millions Of iPhones

Police Arrest Man Potentially Linked to Group Threatening to Wipe Millions Of iPhones

Mar 29, 2017
The British authority has reportedly arrested a 20-years-old young man – potentially one of the member of a cyber criminal gang ' Turkish Crime Family ' who threatened Apple last week to remotely wipe data from millions of iOS devices unless Apple pays a ransom of $75,000. The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested a young man from London on Tuesday on suspicion of " Computer Misuse Act and extortion offences, " who according to Motherboard , " may be connected to the ongoing attempted extortion of Apple by a group calling itself the Turkish Crime Family. " Last week, the hacking group claimed to have access to over 300 million iCloud accounts and threatened Apple to remotely wipe data from those millions of Apple devices unless Apple pays it $75,000 in Bitcoin or Ethereum, or $100,000 worth of iTunes gift cards. Motherboard broke the story after one of the members of Turkish Crime Family shared screenshots of emails between the hacking gro
Hackers Threaten to Remotely Wipe 300 Million iPhones Unless Apple Pays Ransom

Hackers Threaten to Remotely Wipe 300 Million iPhones Unless Apple Pays Ransom

Mar 22, 2017
If you use iCloud to sync your Apple devices, your private data may be at risk of getting exposed or deleted by April 7th. It has been found that a mischievous group of hackers claiming to have access to over 300 million iCloud accounts is threatening Apple to remotely wipe data from those millions of Apple devices unless Apple pays it $75,000 in crypto-currency or $100,000 worth of iTunes gift cards. The hacking group, who identified themselves as 'Turkish Crime Family,' has demanded a ransom to be paid in Bitcoin or Ethereum, another popular crypto-currency. Motherboard broke this story on Tuesday after a hacker claiming to represent the alleged hacking group shared screenshots of alleged emails between the group and Apple's security team with the publication. "I just want my money and thought this would be an interesting report that a lot of Apple customers would be interested in reading and hearing," the hacker told Motherboard. The screenshots o
iPhone Secretly Sends Your Call History to Apple Even If iCloud Backups are Turned Off

iPhone Secretly Sends Your Call History to Apple Even If iCloud Backups are Turned Off

Nov 18, 2016
In the fight against encryption , Apple has positioned itself as a staunch defender of its user privacy by refusing the federal officials to provide encryption backdoors into its products, as well as implementing better encryption for its products. However, a new report from a security firm suggests Apple's online syncing service iCloud secretly stores logs of its users' private information for as long as four months — even when iCloud backup is switched off. Russian digital forensics firm Elcomsoft discovered that Apple's mobile devices automatically send its users' call history to the company's servers if iCloud is enabled, and stored that data for up to four months. And it turns out that there is no way for iCloud users to stop this phone call syncing service unless they completely disable the cloud synchronization feature. Elcomsoft, which sells software to extract data from Apple's iCloud backups and works with police and intelligence agencies,
The Fappening 3 — Jennifer Lawrence New Photos Leaked Online

The Fappening 3 — Jennifer Lawrence New Photos Leaked Online

Sep 27, 2014
It seems like there is no end of " celebrity photo leaks ". As part of the Fappening 3 hack, some new naked photos of Jennifer Lawrence have apparently been leaked online in the "third round" of celebrity photo leaks including, top model Cara Delevingne, actress Anna Kendrick. On Friday, new celebrity photos were leaked online, labelled as ' The Fappening 3 ' by subreddits and 4chan communities. The release appears to be part of the massive leak that began in August and has continued with 55 more photos of a three-time Oscar nominee who won for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, Jennifer Lawrence hitting the Internet once again. Other female identities targeted by the latest Leaked photo scandal include American Olympic gold medallist Misty May Treanor and actors Alexandra Chando, Kelli Garner and Lauren O'Neil . However, there are several pictures that show the celebrities were partying away in some pretty revealing outfits. Earlier this week, the second edition of
More Celebrity Photos Leaked — Kim Kardashian and Others Targeted

More Celebrity Photos Leaked — Kim Kardashian and Others Targeted

Sep 21, 2014
So far people have not forgotten about the recent celebrity iCloud hacking scandal , a new wave of photographs of celebrities have been leaked in what appears to be the second edition of the massive leak related to the celebrities intimate-images on Internet earlier this month. Among the victims of the most recent leak were reality television star Kim Kardashian , 33, actor Vanessa Hudgens , 25, and U.S. national women's soccer team goalie Hope Solo , 33. Mary-Kate Olsen, Avril Lavigne, Hayden Panettiere, Lake Bell, Leelee Sobieski and former Disney stars Aly and AJ Michalka are other potential victims of this hacking scandal. A video of Aubrey Plaza and previously unreleased photographs of celebrities included in the last leak, such as Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence and The Big Bang Theory star Kaley Cuoco , were also released with the recent privacy breach . The leaked Celebrity Photos first appeared Saturday morning on the image-sharing site 4Chan and were also post
Apple to Add Security Alerts for iCloud Users after Celebrity Nude Photo Hack

Apple to Add Security Alerts for iCloud Users after Celebrity Nude Photo Hack

Sep 07, 2014
In the wake of the biggest digital exposure of personal nude selfies belonging to as many as 100 high-profile celebrities, Apple said the company plans to add extra security measures to keep hackers out of user accounts. Not just this, the company also plans to extend its two-factor authentication (2FA) feature to account logins to the iCloud service from mobile device in order to avoid future intrusions. APPLE BROADEN SECURITY WITH NEW RELEASE The company's chief executive, Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that the company will introduce more features to tighten up the security of its users' online accounts, but he " aggressively encourage " users to be more alert to the risks posed by cyber criminals, as you can't leave everything on the service providers. " We want to do everything we can do to protect our customers, because we are as outraged if not more so than they are, " Cook told the Journal. Apple will give alerts to users via emails a
Reported Apple iCloud Hack Leaked Hundreds of Celebrity Photos

Reported Apple iCloud Hack Leaked Hundreds of Celebrity Photos

Sep 02, 2014
Now this gonna be the height of Privacy Breach! Images of several high-profile persona including actors, models, singers and presenters have been made available online in a blatant hacking leak linked to the Apple iCloud service. The recent privacy breach appears to be one of the biggest celebrity privacy breaches in history and represents a serious offense and violation of privacy. A hacker allegedly breached Apple's iCloud service and copied the personal photos of at least 100 high-profile stars. WHO IS BEHIND IT The anonymous hacker, using the name Tristan , sparked the scandal on Sunday after dumping a large cache of female celebrities' alleged naked photographs onto the 4chan online forum, an online message board used for sharing pictures. The list of those celebrities allegedly affected, whose photographs are supposedly in this cache, is very long that includes Jenny McCarthy, Rihanna, Kristin Dunst, Kate Upton, the American actress Mary E Winstead , and the
Apple Devices Hacked by 'Oleg Pliss', held to Ransom

Apple Devices Hacked by 'Oleg Pliss', held to Ransom

May 27, 2014
From last few years Ransomware malwares are targeting Windows users Worldwide and experts predicted that it was just a matter of time until ransomware would hit mobile devices and other Desktop operating systems like Mac, iOS, Android etc. A Few weeks back we reported about a Ransomware malware campaign which is targeting Android mobile users. Such Malware first try to trick users into downloading it and then demanding payment to restore user control of the device. This morning reports came out that cybercriminals have targeted a large number of users of Apple's iCloud connected devices with a sophisticated Ransomware in Australia. The owners of iPhone , Mac and iPads are finding their devices locked remotely through iCloud and a message originating in Apple's find my device service that states " Device hacked by Oleg Pliss ". One user wrote on Apple Support Forum, " I went to check my phone and there was a message on the screen (it's
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