3,000 of Pippa’s private photos are hacked
PIPPA Middleton was at the centre of a major security alert last night after a man offered to sell 3,000 photographs of her and her royal relatives.
The pictures, which are believed to be genuine, are said to include private images of her sister, the Duchess of Cambridge and her and Prince William’s children, George and Charlotte.
The anonymous seller, calling themselves ‘mas’, contacted media organisations claiming they had obtained 3,000 private photos from Miss Middleton’s Apple iCloud account. They apparently include photos of parties, wedding dresses, royal children ‘& pretty much everything in between’.
The seller added: ‘Due to current climate on privacy laws in the UK I’m intending a quick US sale but would at least give you a heads-up’.
Last night a source close to Miss Middleton, 33, confirmed that the pictures appeared to be genuine. A spokesman said: ‘Miss Middleton’s lawyers have been informed and, in due course, the police will too.’
The seller offered to converse with journalists through the encrypted messenger service Whatsapp. He or she added: ‘This is obviously a vast source of info and pictures that I neither want nor intend to keep in my possession very long.’
Celebrities’ private online accounts have frequently been targeted by hackers. Stars including Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence and model Kate Upton became the victims of a mass iCloud theft in August 2014.
It is thought that more than 100 celebrities fell victim to the hack, which resulted in revealing pictures of them being posted online.
Other high-profile figures who have had their online data stolen include Night Manager star Tom Hiddleston, whose Instagram account was hacked last month. The hackers had control of the star’s account for about two hours and shared an image assuring his fans they would eventually return the his account to him. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was also the victim of an embarrassing hacking scam back in June, after a Saudi-based group discovered his password was ‘dadada’.
ICloud is a subscription service offered by Apple that backs up documents and pictures stored on devices.
It acts as an external hard drive that works wirelessly and allows you to access files, data and images from any device, via the internet.
As of February, the service had 782million users worldwide.
Miss Middleton became engaged to James Matthews, a hedge fund manager, in July less than a year after they began dating.
Mr Matthews, 41, asked her father Michael for his daughter’s hand before popping the question.
His own father David made millions of pounds in the motor trade after starting his working life as a trainee mechanic in Rotherham.
‘Photos with royal children’