Apple is breaking its silence following a major breach in security which led to hackers leaking personal and racy pictures of several female celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence and Ariana Grande.
The company released a statement expressing its outrage over the recent events but denied being at fault. According to The Wrap, Apple said that after conducting an investigation, it believed the breach was not due to Apple security issues.
"We wanted to provide an update to our investigation into the theft of photos of certain celebrities," Apple said in the statement Tuesday. "When we learned of the theft, we were outraged and immediately mobilized Apple's engineers to discover the source. Our customers' privacy and security are of utmost importance to us.
"After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet.
"None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple's systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved."
The FBI announced Monday that it will be looking into the recent hacking incident. FBI Spokeswoman Laura Eimiller told NBC News that the bureau is "aware of the allegations concerning computer intrusions and the unlawful release of material involving high profile individuals, and is addressing the matter."
Celebrities including Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Victoria Justice and more were victims of the recent hacking - after their pictures were stolen from online file storage and posted online without their permission.
While some call the pictures fake, several of the alleged victims have threatened to take legal action.
"To protect against this type of attack, we advise all users to always use a strong password and enable two-step verification. Both of these are addressed on our website at https://support.apple.com/kb/ht4232," Apple said.
