CELEBRITIES who shared intimate snaps with their loved ones have been targeted in recent years by hackers who leaked the photos online.
A number of the horrified stars have lashed out, with some even slamming the snaps shared online, as fake. Read on to find out who has been victimised...
What is an iCloud hack and who are the biggest victims?
iCloud celeb hacks first gained notoriety in the US on August 31 2014, when a tranche of personal photos belonging to female Hollywood celebs were posted online.
In what became known as "the Fappening", the most notable victims included actors Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Kaley Cuoco and Kirsten Dunst.
The snaps were stolen by web thieves who accessed Apple's iCloud — a storage platform which automatically backs up data on users' devices.
Investigations found that devious scams to get celebs to hand over passwords may have been used, as well as other targeted password attacks.
Hunger Games star Jen described the hack as a "sex crime", telling Vanity Fair: "Anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offence and you should cower with shame".
In November 2017, the Oscar winner described the incident as "like being gang-banged by the f***ing planet".
Lawrence said the privacy invasion left her confidence shattered and in tears when people described her as a good role model.
She told the Hollywood Reporter: "When the hacking thing happened, it was so unbelievably violating that you can't even put it into words.
"I feel like I got gang-banged by the f***ing planet. There was not one person in the world that is not capable of seeing these intimate photos of me.
But fellow victim, model Emily Ratajkowski, said: "I'm not sure that anyone who Googles it is necessarily a criminal. I think the people who stole the photos are".
Which other celebrities have had their naked photos leaked online?
- Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn - The golf legend is taking legal action after hackers accessed Lindsey's phone and posted intimate photos of the pair in August 2017.
- Mel Sykes - 23 intimate pictures of Mel appeared online in June 2017.
- Catherine Tyldesley - pictures of the actress posing in lingerie leaked in early 2017
- Sally Lindsay - pictures of Sally posing backstage in her panto dressing room leaked in June 2017
- Kym Marsh - Coronation Street star called in the police after pictures surfaced online. She feared a 57-second video could leak after reports it was being flogged for £30,000.
- Rhian Sugden - Former Page 3 model was victim of an online leak in May 2017.
- Jennifer Metcalfe - Discussing the leaked pics on Loose Women, Jen said: "It could have been from years ago... Obviously it's been a shock."
- Miley Cyrus - Dozens of pictures leaked online in April 2017 of the controversial singer
- Demi Lovato - The singer laughed off her leaked cleavage shot on social media.
- Emma Watson - The Sun revealed how private photographs of Emma Watson were leaked online, with claims the haul included nude images.
- Holly Willoughby - The Sun exclusively revealed that The This Morning presenter is being taunted by hackers, who claim they will publish X-rated photos of her.
- Mischa Barton - The O.C. star was at the centre of a sex tape scandal after it was reported that footage of the actress was touted around major porn websites.
- Sienna Miller - The 35-year-old actress's cloud account was targeted by cyber geeks who shared topless snaps of the star wearing a mask.
- Amanda Seyfried - Amanda was caught up in a nude photo scandal amid reports intimate pictures of the actress with her ex-boyfriend emerged online.
- Rihanna - Rumour has it that Rihanna’s naked photographs were leaked online by Chris Brown after they broke up, although this has never been confirmed.
- Vanessa Hudgens - The High School Musical star had intimate photos leaked three times over three years.
- Kim Kardashian - Kim was the victim of the iCloud hack and had one picture leaked from her mobile. The photo showed her topless, and looking in the mirror.
- Scarlett Johansson - Pics that Scarlett took for former lover Ryan Reynolds leaked online. The actress said: "They were sent to him. There's nothing wrong with that... It's not like I was shooting a porno although there's nothing wrong with that either."
- Kelly Brook - Intimate pics she had taken on her phone were leaked online during the iCloud hack.
- Blake Lively - Pictures of Blake posing nude in a mirror turned up online. However, the former Gossip Girl star claims that the snaps are fake.
- Kirsten Dunst - After photos leaked, Kirsten said in 2014: "I try to have a sense of humour about a really unfortunate situation. The FBI is investigating, so they're handling it right now."
- Faye Brookes - A video of the Coronation Street star was leaked online, which shows her dancing around before the camera switches to show her in a sex act with the naked man.
- Amy Childs - The Towie star sent her girlfriends a series of private snaps as she was lacking body confidence at the time.
- Maria Kannelis - X-rated snaps and a sex tape of the WWE star were leaked by hackers.
- Georgia May Foote - Forty-four intimate pics of Georgia, 27, were posted online - in most she is naked and they include shower snaps.
- Natalie Cassidy - Six images of Natalie, 34, have been leaked, including some in underwear.
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How have the celebrities responded?
In 2017, several stars were planning to take legal action against the hackers after successfully getting snaps removed from one site.
After a fake nude picture of X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger appeared on a sleazy website, she asked lawyers to get them removed.
Olympic swimmer Lindsey Vonn, whom Tiger Woods dated for two years, had photos leaked online, along with a snap of the golf ace.
The pair’s lawyers successfully removed the pictures but they vowed to find the culprits.
Almost a year after her photos were leaked, WWE star Maria Kannelis took to Facebook to launch a scathing attack on the hackers.
Within a lengthy statement, she said: "I’m too sexy for small mindedness. I can and I will never be afraid of it.
"Being sexy doesn’t end for pregnant people, married people, curvy people, skinny people, any people… Sex is beautiful."
Apple responded by pledging to bolster iCloud security and an FBI investigation resulted in the March 2016 prosecution of Ryan Collins.
The 36-year-old from Lancaster, Pennsylvania pleaded guilty to a hacking charge and in October was sentenced to 12-months in prison.
In January 2016, Edward Majerczyk, 28, of Chicago, Illinois, was sentenced to nine months in prison for hacking an unnamed celeb.
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