Apple today said that the hack of celebrity photos did not include a breach of iCloud or Find My iPhone.
Instead, "certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords, and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet," Apple said in a statement.
"None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple's systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone," according to the company.
Cupertino said it came to this conclusion after "more than 40 hours of investigation," and is working with law enforcement officials to track down the hackers.
"When we learned of the theft, we were outraged and immediately mobilized Apple's engineers to discover the source," Apple said in its statement. "Our customers' privacy and security are of utmost importance to us."
Going forward, Apple encouraged users to "always use a strong password and enable two-step verification."
Apple's statement comes after a hacker on Sunday posted dozens of photos featuring nude celebrities on the Internet. The photos appeared to have come from the actresses' phones, and in the immediate aftermath, there were questions about whether the hackers had obtained the photos via a hack of iCloud.
A number of sites noted that a bug within Find My iPhone was revealed just one day before the photo leak. Apparently, Find My iPhone did not use bruteforce protection, allowing hackers to guess different passwords without being locked out. Ultimately, the so-called iBrute bug was patched shortly before the leak.
For more, check out Two-Factor Authentication: Who Has It and How to Set It Up and our roundup of The Best Password Managers.
The individual or group behind the celeb leaks could face some serious time behind bars if uncovered. In 2012, a Florida man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for hacking into email accounts belonging to actresses Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis, singer Christina Aguilera, and other celebrities.
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