Celebrity Nude Photo Hacking Scandal: What You Need to Know

Some of Hollywood's most famous ladies — Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and Kirsten Dunst among them — were the victims of an online hacker who lifted personal photos from their computers, phones, or other digital devices and posted them on the Internet over the weekend. The photos were all private, and some of them featured the women in various states of undress.

Who were the victims? How did it happen? Who did it? What's being done about it? What are these celebrities saying about this breach of privacy? We break it down…

What happened: A hacker or group of hackers accessed the personal photos of these women and posted them on the site 4chan. A source told the U.K.'s Guardian that the oldest photos date back to December 2011 and the newest are from Aug. 14. While it was initially thought that the photos were accessed through Apple's iCloud service, a rep for the company said that there was no breach in their systems themselves. Rather, a select group of celebrity accounts were compromised by hackers who were able to figure out user names, passwords, and the answers to security questions.

The victims: Academy Award winner Lawrence seemed to have been the biggest target in what is being described as one of the biggest mass breaches of celebrity privacy in history. There are photos of her in swimsuits and there are photos of her in, well, nothing. Others who were reportedly victimized in this crude crime include model Upton; actresses Dunst, Lea Michele, Aubrey Plaza, Winona Ryder, Becca Tobin, Victoria Justice, Brie Larson, Jessica Brown Findlay, Teresa Palmer, Krysten Ritter, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Yvonne Strahovski; singers Rihanna, Ariana Grande, and Avril Lavigne; TV host Cat Deeley; and Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney.

What the victims are saying: So far, Lawrence, Upton, Dunst, and Winstead have all confirmed the legitimacy of the photos.

A spokesperson for Lawrence told The Insider With Yahoo, "This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence."

Upton's lawyer issued a statement to The Insider With Yahoo, saying, "This is obviously an outrageous violation of our client Kate Upton's privacy. We intend to pursue anyone disseminating or duplicating these illegally obtained images to the fullest extent possible."

Winstead spoke out on Twitter before announcing an "internet break."

Dunst blamed Apple's iCloud, the reported source of the photos.

Meanwhile, Justice, Grande, Strahovski, and Maroney have also spoken out but said that the photos of them are not real, claiming they are completely fabricated.

[Update: On Tuesday afternoon, TMZ reported that Porn.com had removed the alleged photos of Maroney after her attorneys contacted the website and demanded that the photos be taken down. Some of them, the lawyers claimed, were taken when Maroney was underage. She turned 18 in December. Reportedly, another lawyer representing the Olympian reached out to other websites publishing the photos, saying that Maroney owns the copyright.]

Others have yet to address the hacking publicly — and may not as it's now an ongoing criminal investigation.

Hasn't this happened before? Yes — as Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, and Christina Aguilera can tell you. In 2012, there was another major hacking case involving dozens of naked images of celebrities (nude photos Johansson sent to her then-husband Ryan Reynolds were at the center of the case), and a Jacksonville, Florida, man named Christopher Chaney pleaded guilty to nine felony charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. A federal source involved in "Operation Hackerazzi" tells Yahoo that Chaney's arrest came following the 11-month investigation, and his sentence was more than the six years recommended by prosecutors, but less than the maximum 60 he had faced.

And contrary to what was initially reported in the press at the time, the case did not involve "cellphone hacking." Instead, Chaney, used vulnerabilities in various web-based email systems (Yahoo, Google, and Apple) and personal information gleaned from publicly available sources to gain control of various email accounts and illegally access them. He would then scour the accounts for images/videos and use his victims' address books to target additional celebs. In all, Chaney hacked more than 50 accounts — and not all of his victims were famous. Two of the women were people he knew. In one of those cases, he sent nude pictures of his former co-worker to her father.

Who is investigating this matter: It's gone all the way to the top. The FBI announced on Monday that they are looking into the matter. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation is aware of the allegations concerning computer intrusions and the unlawful release of material involving high-profile individuals, and is addressing the matter," Public Affairs Specialist Laura Eimiller said. "Any further comment would be in appropriate at this time." On Tuesday morning, Eimiller told Yahoo that there is no new information being released about the investigation.

Apple is also looking into it because it has been linked to the use of their iCloud product. "After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that 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," a rep said in a statement on Tuesday, referring to the same practice Johansson, Kunis, and Aguilera's hacker used. "None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple's systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved."

The statement ended with, "To protect against this type of attack, we advise all users to always use a strong password and enable two-step verification. Both of these are addressed on our website."

Are there any suspects? On Monday, a man named Bryan Hamade was linked to the 4Chan hacking. However, the Georgia native, who went by the handle BluntMastermind on the site, denied any involvement. "I am not a hacker," he told Buzzfeed. "I have no idea how the hell someone could hack into all those accounts." Hamade claims that he's not trying to find the alleged original leaker to clear his own name.

What are other celebrities are saying: Lena Dunham was one of the first to speak out and defend the victims, who have faced a lot of criticism from online commenters, and implore people not to look at the photos. She wrote:

And she's not the only one. Seth Rogen also had strong words on the topic, speaking out against sites that republished the photos:

Anna Kendrick touched on the situation using her trademark sense of humor:

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