Pierluigi Paganini
November 22, 2020
Threat actors have stolen naked photos and videos from hundreds of female sports stars and celebrities and leaked them online.
The attack took place in the same hours as hackers hit Manchester United and brings us back to mind the Fappening cases that exposed online cache of nude photos and videos of celebrities back in 2014.
Now explicit content stolen from the phones of four unnamed British athletes was posted online.
The athletes are now evaluating all the options to have the photos and videos removed from the internet, but they know that it is quite impossible.
“The hack, which the athletes became aware of this week, has caused panic and one leading sports agency has advised its clients to take extra measures to protect their private data.” reported The Times.
The situation is embarassing, one of the athletes reportedly had about 100 images stolen, while hackers have leaked more than 30 pictures and videos belonging to another athlete.
“The athletes, who had photographs and videos stolen from their phones, were considering steps last night to have the material removed from the dark net.“
“It really is difficult to know what to do next,” an agent of one of the impacted athletes told The Times. “The people who do this are sick. “We have seen some very unpleasant cases, even where people have been blackmailed over [stolen] material.”
“It can take years to pursue, just to get it taken down from the internet. As a victim you have to decide if you want to go through it.”
“Accessing and then leaked people’s personal data is utterly reprehensible, and we would urge everyone to take steps to secure their online accounts,” a spokesman for the National Cyber Security Centre said.
One of the most crucial countermeasures to adopt to prevent this kind of incident is to enable multiple-factor authentication for those services that implement it.
“The NCSC recommends people turn on two-factor authentication where it’s available.” continues NCSC’s spokesman.
“We also recommend a strong password made up of three random words to reduce the likelihood of being hacked, and important accounts should use a unique password.”
“The NCSC’s Cyber Aware website has actionable steps to stay secure.”
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(SecurityAffairs – hacking, naked photos)
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