Mikaela Hoover's nude photos leaked in Fappening 2018

Fappening continues in 2018: Mikaela Hoover becomes a new victim

Almost four years after the scandal known as the Fappening^[1] or Celebgate was registered for the first time, hackers keep hacking celebrities' iCloud accounts and spread their nude photos all around the world. Last week, Mikaela Hoover became the second victim of the Fappening 2018.

A 33-years-old actress, best known for playing Nova Prime’s assistant in Guardians of the Galaxy, has contacted the LAPD^[2] already and reported a cyber crime against her, causing the loss of nearly 40,000 private photos and videos, in some of which she is captured nude. According to a report from TMZ,^[3] 119 of Hoover's nudes were uploaded to the Fappening website.

Nevertheless, Hoover hasn't talked about a new wave of the Fappening that touched her personally, but, based on the news that police is under investigation, the alarm seems to be true.

Hackers do not intend to stop

Although four hackers responsible for the first two massive Fappening waves between 2014 and 2017 have been arrested, their partners keep attacking celebrities in 2018.

The first instance of the iCloud hack was registered in 2014 with the Oscar-winning Jennifer Lawrence as the most prominent victim of the scandal so far.

Hackers stopped for a while and returned in 2017 leaking personal pictures of such celebrities as Kate Upton, Miley Cyrus, Amanda Seyfried, Kristen Stewart, Dakota Johnson, Faye Brookes, Nicole Scherzinger, Maria Kanellis, Anne Hathaway, Charissa Thompson, and a newly hacked Mikaela Hoover. Most of their nude pictures leaked to sharing site 4chan,^[4] Reddit, Twitter, and other media sources.

iCloud accounts remain vulnerable

Since the Fappening scandal is not a phenomenon, experts do not expatiate on the hack itself. Nonetheless, we feel the need to remind that Fappening is a scandal related to iCloud accounts. By initiating target phishing attacks, hackers manage to break into iCloud accounts and leak every piece of information stored on it.

Experts point out that in most of the cases hackers obtain the nude pictures of celebrities from Apple devices with the automatic backup function enabled. Although people can disable this feature, for the sake of data loss, most of Apple users keep iCloud service enabled by default.

FBI has already confirmed that four suspects^[5] for breaking into celebrities' iCloud accounts and leaking their private photos have been arrested. All of them were sentenced from 9 to 18-months imprisonment, but that did not stop their campaigners to keep iCloud's hacks.

Protect yourself from iCloud's hack

Although hundred percent protection from Fappening hasn't yet been found, experts warn that most of the credentials to access Apple iCloud accounts were gather by initiating phishing campaigns. Potential victims received phishing emails impersonating Apple Security Department and urging people to identify themselves by entering personal details.

Keeping such strategies in mind, it's crucial to check email letters carefully. Although Apple Security Department may send confirmation requests to the Apple device users, such messages will never contain grammar or typo mistakes. Besides, they are sent to confirm the login from another device to the same account, so if you haven't logged to your account using the alternative device, report the message as spam. Having reliable anti-spyware is also a good idea.