An anonymous hacker on the 4chan site has published a series of naked photos of more than 100 celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, after reportedly hacking into the users’ iCloud accounts.

Even though the photos appeared to originate from iCloud devices – and even though 4chan users mentioned it – it’s not been confirmed that Apple’s cloud storage system provided the leak. Other theories are being banded about as to how the photos were accessed, with one report pointing the finger of blame at Dropbox’s door.

The explicit pictures – not all of which have been verified at the time of writing – were posted on 4chan before circulating on Reddit and Twitter.

Lawrence’s agent confirmed the veracity of the pictures, and threatened legal action against those responsible.

“This is a flagrant violation of privacy,” the spokesperson told the BBC. “The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence.”

Winstead, posting on Twitter, also confirmed the photos were of her, adding that because of their age she could “only imagine the creepy effort that went into this.”

Elsewhere, while iCloud accounts were being hacked, Google announced its Cloud Platform had received an upgraded set of security certificates.

The new documentation includes an updated ISO 27001 certificate, as well as an SOC 2 and SOC 3 Type II audit report, which can be seen in all its glory here.

“Keeping your data safe is at the core of what we do,” wrote Google Apps director of security Eran Feigenbaum in a blog post.

“These certifications, along with our existing offerings…help assure our customers and their regulators that we’re committed to keeping their data and that of their users secure, private and compliant,” he added.

In 2012, Christopher Chaney was jailed for 10 years after leaking nude pictures of actress Scarlet Johansson.

What do you make of this leak? Does this make you more concerned about the security of your cloud data?