Celebrity Hacking - Was iCloud the culprit?

It seems like you can’t turn on the news right now and see the story about the celeb’s getting hacked.  Chris was even asked to speak about it with Fox Business Network.

There are a lot of sensational reports about how this “hack” occurred, but lets just sit and think for a minute.  In the past, umm, lets just say forever years, we have been told numerous time that weak passwords, silly security questions and sharing too much info publicly just don’t mix.  This sad but true fact is still as important today as ever, maybe even more so.

Hundreds of young women now have their naked bodies plastered all over the web against their will due to the simple equation above.  Low tech hacking still wins every time, and as Apple and the hackers themselves have been saying, it was merely guessing the passwords or resetting them and using public facing info to answer those silly security questions.

Can we fix this nude pic leaking thing?

Sure, we actually can.  Here are a few tips to help you never have this issue….

The first one is a sure fire, I can say 100% guarantee that you will NEVER have a nude picture of you leaked on the web….

1.    STOP TAKING NUDE PICTURES OF YOURSELF ON CELL PHONES (or any device).  I can honestly guarantee if you stop at step one, you will never be on the news embarrassed with pics like this leaked anywhere.  But if for some insane reason you have to be one of these people <sigh> then there are ways to protect yourself from anything being leaked.

2.    Password strength – Even relatively long and difficult passwords can be cracked using rainbow tables, brute forcing or other methods.  If that is true, imagine what a weak 8 character password offers as a challenge to the malicious attacker?  (hint:  none at all) When asked, we suggest that phrases or whole sentences offer more of a chance for protection.  Replacing some of the letters with numbers or characters, mixing caps with lower case, all add to the complexity of your password.

3.    Memory – not sure if you are like me, but I can’t remember 50 passwords that are 30+ characters with mixed randomness built in, so a good password manager is a nice tool.  Now, we don’t mean a sticky note stuck to your monitor, but a real manager with a strong password.  Preferably chose one that does not connect to the cloud, the web or any online service but only lives locally to you.

4.    Change your underwear – remember mom telling you this all the time?  Well, we are still telling you.  So you are proud of yourself?  You came up with strong, long, difficult/next to impossible passwords, you store them securely and you never have taken a nude photo of yourself even once.  But your passwords are from 1992 and have never been changed.  FAIL.  I know it stinks, but change your passwords often, how often you ask?  Well I won’t say because it is really up to you. But don’t wait for a breach to make a change.

Look folks, remember this, if those pictures where your mom, your sister, your wife or your daughter you would be appalled and angry they are everywhere for everyone to see.  Were these young ladies smart in how they handled the above four points? No.  But lets show them some dignity, move past this and start fixing the problem.  In case you haven’t read the OTHER news… Home Depot was hacked, JP Morgan was hacked, a Russian gang stole 1.2 billion (with a B) passwords, DHS Contractor was hacked, keep counting how many healthcare providers are now hacked and the list just keeps running. (and this is just in the last few days….)

We have our work cut out for us.  To the celebs that may be reading this blog, I have tried contacting some of your agents to give you some help in getting this fixed, if you are interested call me.  If not, make some changes and try to get more secure.

Till next time.