back to article Celeb nudie iCloud pervs hatched photo-slurping Flappy Bird plot

The hacker ring behind last week's celebrity nude self iCloud privacy flap also planned to use malware to obtain private photographs from compromised Android phones. The hackers swapped snaps on the /stol/ (short for “stolen”) forum on image board AnonIB, a spinoff of the notorious 4chan, including intimate snaps of Jennifer …

  1. CAPS LOCK

    Ground breaking journalism here by John Leyden...

    ... Some people didn't get hacked by a 'hacker ring' that might have been one bloke, who didn't do anything. Hold the front page!

  2. Elmer Phud
    Unhappy

    If the idea is to capture images of people playing Flappy Birds won't they just get a load of gurning faces?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      you mean people don't play that game nekked?

  3. Tascam Holiday
    Coat

    Apologies in advance

    Flappy birds to get birds' flaps?

    1. Glen 1

      Re: Apologies in advance

      Fappy birds?

    2. AbelSoul
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: Apologies in advance

      Oh, ha ha ha haa! Ha haa! Nice one, Centurion. Like it. Like it.

      CENTURION: Shut up!

  4. Liam2

    The best part is that nearly every Android app out there already requests INTERNET (for ads) and READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE (a holdover from when phones had tiny /data partitions and physical SD cards, so it made sense to have a small app that downloaded large amounts of game data separately and put it on the SD card).

    1. goldcd

      And the external storage got locked down

      in KitKat, I think.

      Took me f'in ages to hack my M8 back to a working state - still, at least you'll all get to see little goldcd in the near future.

  5. Graham Marsden
    Alert

    "the app. It now secretly downloads all of the phones pictures to my server"

    And *THAT* Google, is why we, the USERS, need and should control of what apps can actually access on our Android phones!

    1. veti Silver badge

      Re: "the app. It now secretly downloads all of the phones pictures to my server"

      Yeah, we have that on iOS and Windows Phone. I'd actually be quite surprised if Android doesn't already allow it, at least as an option.

      But it doesn't help.

      Because virtually every app you install demands a long list of services, in tiny print - it's a chore just to read them. And there's no way to allow them selectively - it's all or none. Why does "Flappy Bird" need to know my location? - well, obviously, it might help to serve me ads, but does it do more than that with the info? I'll never know. (Or so I hope.)

      Basically, after installing the first dozen or so apps, you're already trained to - if you're particularly conscientious - skim through the list looking for anything grossly offensive, such as "address book", and if it doesn't trip your red-wire warnings, tap "Allow". It's very scary, what can slip under that radar.

      1. Fluffy Bunny
        Angel

        Re: "the app. It now secretly downloads all of the phones pictures to my server"

        A contributor in another forum suggested running all these apps in a sandpit. Great idea. Hope CrApple doesn't steal, er, patent it first.

      2. garden-snail
        Go

        Re: "the app. It now secretly downloads all of the phones pictures to my server"

        I understand Android L is going to revamp the way permissions are granted, but for now I'd recommend CyanogenMod's "Privacy Guard" feature, which lets you allow or disallow individual permissions for installed apps. Worth getting CM for that alone!

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