New entry on a long list of celebrities with similar problems

Aug 31, 2011 14:26 GMT  ·  By

A new group of hackers called Hollywood Leaks (HWLeaks) vowes to target Hollywood artists and has already started by leaking personal photos allegedly stolen from the phone of singer and actress Julianne Hough.

Hough, who rose to prominence by winning ABC's 'Dancing with the Stars' contest twice, is a professional dancer, country music singer and actress.

The set of pictures released by the hackers, while personal in nature and possibly embarrassing for Hough, who has a "good girl" reputation, and ultimately not very damaging.

The most revealing one is a photo of the singer in bikini which is clearly not for the public's eyes, but not worse than intimate photos of other celebrities that were leaked on the Internet in the past.

Former teen-idol Miley Cyrus had similarly revealing photos published online when she was 16. ESPN reporter Erin Andrews had a video of her undressing in a hotel room leaked online. The person who recorded it was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

It isn't only female celebrities that are targeted. College Hill TV series star Dorion Standberry had naked photos of himself published online after hackers broke into his email account. The pictures were actually part of a nude modelling session he did before becoming a full-time actor.

Some people doubt that Hough's phone was actually hacked and the pictures stolen. They believe that it might all be part of a PR stunt, however, HWLeaks seems to have targeted other artists as well.

"A quick check of Miss Hough's Twitter feed reveals that she normally posts messages from her Apple iPhone," points out Graham Cluley, a security expert from Sophos.

"It's unclear how photos would have been stolen from the iPhone, unless someone else had physical access to the device, to a computer the iPhone had been synched with, or if the photos had been uploaded to the net in some way," he adds.