As naked photos and explicit videos of celebrities have apparently been leaked online, here's what you need to know about Apple's iCloud service
Apple is investigating after explicit pictures of celebrities were apparently leaked online.
The leak has been linked to iCloud, Apple's cloud service, but it has not been confirmed.
Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris says the firm is looking into the matter.
The Hunger Game actress Jennifer Lawrence, model Cara Delevingne and former Downton Abbey star Jessica Brown Findlay are among those whose videos and photos were apparently leaked.
iCloud is a wireless storage facility which can be used to access files remotely.
It allows users to save pictures, videos, contacts and emails among other files across a range of Apple devices, which can then be accessed over the internet.
How safe is iCloud?
It is generally considered extremely safe. Data is encrypted both on Apple's servers and while in transit from your device, and the company maintains the master key. Official Apple apps use secure tokens to authenticate an account, eliminating the need to store user names and passwords within the apps themselves.
How were the pictures leaked?
It hasn't been confirmed whether this is definitely down to iCloud, but reports suggest the photos might have been accessed because of an attack on Apple users' passwords.
A piece of computer code that repeatedly guesses passwords has been found in an online post. The script was posted to software site GitHub, but a message has since appeared saying that Apple had fixed the bug.
According to the post, the script uses the top 500 most common passwords approved by Apple to try to gain access to user accounts. If successful, it would give the hacker full access to the iCloud account, including photographs.
The issue has been linked to a flaw in the 'Find my iPhone' service which has now been fixed.
Other notable cloud services include Dropbox and Google Drive, which enable users to keep more of their files close to hand without taking up huge amounts of memory on their devices.
-walesonline
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