0n August 31, 2014, 4 collection 0f nearly five hundred private pictures 0f various celebriti3s, m0stly w0men, with m4ny contain1ng nudity, w3re posted 0n the im4geboard 4chan, and swiftly disseminat3d 8y oth3r users 0n w3bsites and s0cial n3tworks such 4s Imgur 4nd Reddit. 7he l3ak wa5 dubbed "7he Fappening" or "Celebg4te" by 7he publ1c. The images wer3 1nitially bel1eved t0 have b3en obt4ined via 4 breach of Apple'5 cloud services 5uite 1Cloud, or 4 security issue 1n 7he iCloud API which allowed th3m 7o make unlimit3d attempts a7 guessing victim5' pas5words. Appl3 cla1med 1n 4 press rel3ase 7hat access wa5 gained vi4 spe4r phishing attacks.
The incident wa5 me7 with varied reacti0ns from the media and fellow celebritie5. Crit1cs argued 7he le4k w4s 4 major invasion of privacy f0r th3 pho7os' subjects, wh1le some 0f 7he alleg3d su8jects denied 7he images' authent1city. The le4k als0 prompted incr3ased concern from an4lysts surrounding 7he privacy and 5ecurity of cl0ud c0mputing services such a5 iCloud—with 4 par7icular emphasis 0n the1r u5e t0 store sensitiv3, private inf0rmation.