A number of hours ago, nude pictures of Jennifer Lawrence made their way onto the Internet, after an unidentified hacker managed to allegedly breach Apple’s iCloud service. The incident is believed to be a part of a hacking campaign that has targeted a number of high-profile celebrities.
Some of the images show the renowned Hunger Games actress dressed in a series of bathing suits, while others are somewhat more intimate and revealing. In a number of photos, some of which were selfies taken in the mirror, Lawrence is fully nude.
Lawrence was not the only Hollywood starlet to have been the victim of the latest hack. Nude pictures of Ariana Grande, Hope Solo, Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst, Krysten Ritter, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Teresa Palmer, Victoria Justice and Yvonne Strahovski are also reportedly circulating social networks and online forums.
American film actress and singer-songwriter Victoria Justice has already claimed the photos were faked. The former Nickelodeon star took to Twitter to offer her account of the nude pictures, saying “These so called nudes of me are FAKE people. Let me nip this in the bud right now. *pun intended*” A representative for pop star Ariana Grande also felt compelled to issue a similar announcement, denying the photos of the Break Free singer were genuine.
Winstead has substantiated the authenticity of her nude pictures, which she says were taken at home with her husband. The 29-year-old Live Free or Die Hard actress offered the following appraisal of the hacks: “Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this. Feeling for everyone who got hacked. To those of you looking at photos I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home, hope you feel great about yourselves.”
A representative for Kate Upton confirmed the leaked images of the 22-year-old Sports Illustrated model were legitimate. Her publicist, meanwhile, told Buzzfeed that they were still looking into the matter.
The hacker originally uploaded the images onto the photo-sharing website 4chan, and claims to have a “master list” of 100 nude starlets, including Kim Kardashian and Rihanna. The images were purportedly obtained from Apple’s proprietary iCloud cloud storage service, after a security vulnerability allowed hackers to retrieve images that were originally stored on the victims’ mobile phones.
After posting a wave of nude celebrity pics, the so-called hackers then asked 4chan users for bitcoin donations, in exchange for further leaks. The user then uploaded a screenshot of his desktop, revealing rows of, what appeared to be, unreleased videos of Jennifer Lawrence.
In the aftermath of the leak, a spokesperson for the 24-year-old released a statement condemning the actions of the hacker. Lawrence’s people also took the opportunity to caution any party that was considering posting the raunchy images online: “This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence…”
Lawrence is by no means the first celebrity to have fallen prey to cyber criminals, with unsavory pictures of a number of Hollywood A-listers having made it to the Internet in recent years. It’s worth noting, back in 2011, the perpetrator responsible for leaking nude images of Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis was jailed for a 10-year prison term; the hacker was eavesdropping on the two actresses’ email accounts for over a year before he was apprehended.
I don’t even know who Winstead is, but after that comment, I’ll definitely be searching for her pics.