The FBI are once again investigating reports that nude photos of a famous celebrity have been leaked onto the web.
Twitter was ablaze earlier today with messages claiming to link to naked pictures of film actress Scarlett Johansson, which were allegedly stolen from her iPhone by a hacker earlier this year.
The photographs may or may not be of Scarlett Johansson, but I would suggest that every hot-blooded male exercises some restraint as it’s extremely possible that cybercriminals might exploit the interest to post dangerous links on the web designed to infect computers or steal information.
Of course, Scarlett Johansson isn’t the first celebrity to have fallen victim to a nude photo hacker.
Nude photos and videos of Vanessa Hudgens, the star of “High School Musical”, surfaced on the net earlier this year, after it was claimed the actress’s Gmail account was hacked.
Other victims in the past have included Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus.
Late last year, German investigators alleged that two hackers had
broken into the accounts of over 50 pop stars, including Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, and Justin Timberlake.
In that instance, prosecutors claimed that hackers infected computers with malware in order to steal celebrities’ credit cards details, private pictures, emails and unreleased songs.
Celebrities may be very privileged, but they deserve privacy as much as the rest of us when it comes to their personal phone and email messages.
And like the rest of us, they are just as capable of being foolish about their computer security.
There’s a very simple lesson that celebrities should learn: if you must take nude photos of yourself, don’t leave them on your phone or store them in your email.