The son of American wrestler Hulk Hogan has been the latest celebrity to fall victim to theft and publication of naked pictures on the internet, according to The Huffington Post.
Reality TV star Nick Hogan, 24, is notable for being the first male celebrity targeted directly, though The Independent notes that "photos of professional baseball pitcher Justin Verlander were leaked in the first wave, in conjunction with those of his girlfriend, Kate Upton."
To add to the criminal charges, The Huffington Post reports that the reality TV star hit back at hackers by stating that several of the images of his girlfriends were from his teenage years, "taken while they were underage, and thus should be considered child pornography."
The Telgraph reports that the fourth wave of celebrity leaks since the end of August included "actress Winona Ryder and several other victims including Victoria's Secret model Erin Heatherton and actress AnnalLynne McCord."
The latest leak comes just days after Google was threatened with a law suit for allegedly not acting quickly or firmly enough to deal with the sudden spate of naked celebrity photos, as reported by We Live Security here. The Indendent states that the lawyer representing the celebrities is seeking damages for "knowingly accommodating, facilitating and perpetuation the unlawful conduct" of the hackers. Google has dismissed the $100m lawsuit stating that they have "removed tens of thousands of pictures – within hours of the requests being made."
Tackling the subject of the stolen photographs, that have been making headlines since August, ESET’s Stephen Cobb wrote in a blog post that while its tempting to blame technology, the real targets of our action should be the criminals themselves: “Let’s put some of that anger and outrage into lobbying our government to take more decisive action against cybercrime and the people who perpetrate it,” he wrote.
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