The Dutchess of Cambridge's sister Pippa Middleton must be relieved after a UK High Court banned the publication of photos that were allegedly stolen from her hacked iCloud account. The suspect arrested in connection with the breach is now on bail and denies having hacked into her account.
The suspect, identified as Nathan Wyatt, who had been arrested by police on charges of the Computer Misuse Act has been bailed. The website designer, who was arrested in Northamptonshire, has been temporarily let out of prison and is set to appear before the authorities in November.
The BBC reported on September 24 that photographs had been stolen from the Dutchess of Cambridge's sister. Just before the arrest, a leading daily had reported that it was offered 3000 personal images in exchange for GBP 50,000 through WhatsApp by an anonymous user. Once the matter was brought to the notice of the Middleton family, the police was contacted.
Middleton's lawyers on September 28 demonstrated in court that she has been caused quite a lot of worry by the incident and requested that the publication of the stolen photos is banned.
More distressing for Pippa Middleton is the fact that being Kate Middleton's sister means that the hackers could use the stolen images to create distress for the Royal family. Middleton has confirmed that photos of the Prince and Princess were among those hacked from her iCloud account.
The suspect, who used pseudonyms like "Crafty Cockney" and "Mas" to mask his true identity, has denied allegations that he had hacked Middleton's iCloud account. Instead, he identifies himself as the middle-man who helps hackers to sell the stuff they manage to steal online.
The International Business Times reported that the suspect is quite satisfied with the attention he has been able to leverage and quoted him as saying: "The UK press played into our hands. I had no intention of selling them anything,"
The incident throws light on the operations of an underground mafia that makes money through the illicit sale of celebrity photos and videos. The celebgate affair in July this year revealed that US-based Edward Majerczyk had been running a phishing campaign to steal photos from celebrities.
In August 2014 the Fapenning was another such hacking attempt which resulted in famous celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence having their private photographs stolen and published on the Internet.
Meanwhile, authorities are yet to determine how the hackers managed to bypass Apple's two-step verification that requires a user to receive a code on a known mobile number. This incident could force Apple to change the security features of its cloud storage system.