Yep, Picks of the Week will be Picks of the fortnight again despite lots of interesting stuff for picks. As you may be aware if you are in touch or are a member, I’ve family matters to deal with and outstanding commissions I have need come first.
I am tremendously grateful for support given during this rather particularly difficult time, and appreciative of all the Cara Delevingne fun stuff sent, and just letting you know that despite my ongoing enthusiasm, this site and it sketches are a lil’ further down my list at present, but by no means forgotten!
Again, you may find meanwhile checking out my digests direct worthwhile, but will update here while building my picks when I can, so check back.
So where were we. Picks, yes, so as for that big story…
“The leak of personal photos of more than 100 female celebrities, nude and otherwise, has tech observers questioning and debating potential vulnerabilities in Apple’s iCloud.”
And if not, if there are any more to come.
Read more: That massive celebrity leaked pics hack (celebrityoopsdigest.blogspot.co.uk).
“The notorious Fappening Report account says it has sets of naked pictures from the massive hack and is offering to sell them.”
To individuals it seems, as—as with those Demi Lovato samples offered—no one who might get sued was willing to pay out to publish.
“A Reddit user says that he sent an email to the Fappening Report’s hotmail account and inquired about pictures. ‘They want $250 for most sets,’ he said, noting that the account claims it has more pictures of Cuoco and Aubrey Plaza, as well as Avril Lavigne and McKayla Maroney.”
Under the principle, caveat emptor (“Let the buyer beware”) I assume—I’m sure you didn’t really intend to fork out for those Hello Kitty backstage meet and greets “freely” available on just about all Avril fan sites. Apparently, it…
“Started a thread on [4chan] and it sounded like 3-5 other members may have bought sets or not. Anyone have any knowledge about this?”
“Or not.” I’d assume not unless you really believe someone bought them and really is hording them all for themself and not trying to at least re-coupe something back too.
“Reddit and 4chan users have been debating for days about the account, with some positing that it’s an FBI sting operation while others believe it may be legitimate.”
Or, you know, this really could—despite the unquestionable validity of some leaked nudies—all be a bit of a scam. If it smell like fish, it probably is….
“The website issued an explanation for its decision to pull down the ‘subreddit’ page, in a post titled ‘Every Man Is Responsible For His Own Soul.’”
For sure, it had a good run with it. Certainly what this scandal has highlighted is a sea-change in reaction to leaked snaps, with a moral imperative thrust onto the shoulders of the viewer—not just the hacker or those uploading—in a way that has not occurred with the countless snaps and sex tapes in the past. That they were non-consenually “shared” though could be contrast with those abhorred non-consensual still images of reporters in orange jumpsuits which are widely shared by the media, and cartel executions videos on which Facebook did a policy u-turn on allowing for “discussion and condemnation” (Pick of the Week, 31st Oct. 2013).
“It is believed a handful of computer users clicked links on Friday evening believing they would take them to the illicit images, but instead they inadvertently installed malware triggering a crippling Internet attack. It took telecommunications giant Spark, the rebranded Telecom Corp., until Sunday to fully repair what it termed a ‘dynamic’ cyber-attack that overloaded its system covering more than 600,000 customers.”
Of course, be it an earthquake, tsunami, or Kate Upton’s ass causing either with that wiggle, scammers and malware creators are quick to ride anything thing that goes viral and squirt you with there own brand of nasties, so be careful what you click.
• Apple vows to improve iCloud security, prevent future fappnings “nudegates” (news.yahoo.com, thank you Evil-Lyn).
“Apple’s iCloud services have been blamed for the hack that resulted in multiple celebrities having their nude pictures leaked all over the Internet, although Apple later revealed that it wasn’t a widespread iCloud hack that’s actually to blame for the huge personal data leak, but rather other factors that are independent from Apple’s iCloud security measures.”
Those other factors likely being weak passwords and cats names broadcast on Instagram as answer to a security question (Pick of the Week, 19th Mar. 2013).
“However, this particular picture leak has hit Apple a few days before its most important announcement of the year, prompting Tim Cook to step in and promise in an interview with The Wall Street Journal even better security features to prevent similar iCloud leaks in the future.”
Because if iCloud does have a problem now, it’s the one Apple dreads most—bad P.R.
“I didn’t take the money and run. S**t got weird once I started posting samples,” the hacker wrote on website 4chan, before lamenting the amount earned from the pictures. “People wanted s*** for free. Sure, I got $120 with my bitcoin address, but when you consider how much time was put into acquiring this stuff (i’m not the hacker, just a collector), and the money (i paid a lot via bitcoin as well to get certain sets when this stuff was being privately traded Friday/Saturday) I really didn’t get close to what I was hoping.”
Very much like the disappointment experienced by those touting those sample Demi Lovato cell phone rudies that no one would touch then (5th April) and was 4chan—not well known for people to pay for stuff—really the best market to pitch stall? And if he/she/hermaphrodite sea cucumber wasn’t in fact the hacker, just the collector, who did the deed or did they actually just fall like rain from the Cloud after all?
“A statement on the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s website said: ‘We would never condone raising funds for cancer research in this manner.’”
I suspect a percentage of those “gulity” viewers may well feel forced to purge their guilt by subjecting their own prostrate to some sort of punishment.
“In a post published today entitled The Chance For The Worldwide Trolling Of A Lifetime, a forum user proposes the idea of getting women to take off their clothes by tricking them that they are showing solidarity to their idol in a savvy social media campaign.”
With the goal of getting “hundreds of thousands of girls are going to post their own topless and nude photos to Twitter, Facebook and Tumbler while holding handwritten ‘solidarity for Jennifer’ signs” it fell a lil’ flat considering most Twitter users who came across the hashtag simply mocked the idea, likely just continuing to share theirs in private. A devious plan for sure, but the same Machiavellianism needed to get some guys to click a Rickrolling “talk to tits” link perhaps not quite as effective at getting women to share theirs with anyone they did not wish to, and I’m sure that those that did know full well the consequences and potential to boost their own interest.