There's no way around it, Apple's iCloud is not good enough. 

What follows is a bit of a ranty complaint about using my iPhone.

However, it's more than just a complaint. The consumer cloud-storage industry is growing quickly as it fills the sizeable cracks in Apple's iOS platform. 

Dropbox, for instance, reportedly did over $200 million in revenue last year, and was valued at $8 billion in its most recent funding. Box, an enterprise cloud storage company, did $124 million in revenue last year. 

Apple's iCloud service is primarily use for backing up devices like the iPhone and iPad. It's really great at that. If you ever switch from one iPhone to another, you know how great it is to see all your apps downloaded automatically. It's also used for app data and document storage. 

However, with one small tweak, it could be so much better for users. 

In the past two weeks, I've had two problems with my iPhone that I thought iCloud would be able to handle. 

The first was when I tried to update my phone to iOS 7.1.1., the latest version of iPhone's software. 

The phone told me that I didn't have enough storage space to update the software. This happened last time I wanted to update my phone to iOS 7.1. I have a 16 GB iPhone. I thought that one solution to this problem would be to sign up for 10 GB of extra iCloud storage for $20 per year. Apple gives you 5 GB of iCloud storage, so I have 15 GB in total.

But even with the extra storage, I couldn't update my phone. I had to delete some old apps, and delete some photos.

Deleting photos isn't the end of the world. I have a lot of photos that are crap, and need to be deleted. But this shouldn't be something I have to figure out. This should be an automated process that Apple handles. It should immediately say something like, "Would you like us to store 1 GB of photos in iCloud?" And, I would say, "You betcha, you tiny little robot! I love you." 

But, there's a problem with that plan. Apple's iCloud only saves photos for 30 days at a time. This weekend I was at a wedding. 

And, as one does at a wedding, I took a lot of photos, and some video with my iPhone 5S.

The camera on the iPhone 5S is spectacular. Even in low-light, photos came out well. And the slo-mo video is a lot of fun, especially with people on the dance floor. Burst-mode, which can take a dozen photos in sequence then chooses the best one, is also great. 

But, by the end of the night, my iPhone told me I couldn't do anymore slo-mo video because I was out of storage on my phone. 

If iCloud actually worked, then this would not be a problem. I would store all my photos in iCloud forever — not 30 days — and it wouldn't matter if I had to delete some photos. Or, more ideally, Apple would automatically delete old photos stored in iCloud as I added new photos. 

Instead, I had to go through photos and figure out which ones I wanted to keep and delete others so that I had more room for photos. Talk about a buzz kill. I'm trying to dance to New Order, but instead I'm staring at my phone, editing photos on the fly.

Apple's iCloud service should be the best photo storage/organization system in the world. It's not. As a result, I have to lean on services from Apple's competitors. 

Google+ may be flawed, but for photo storage, it's great. It can automatically back up photos taken on the iPhone. And unlike iCloud, Google+ stores photos for free. Similarly, Flickr does the same thing. It stores all of my photos automatically for free. 

Yet, iCloud, a service I am willing to pay for, fails to store my photos.

What's extra weird about this is that Apple's iTunes Match works pretty well. I have stored all of my music on iTunes Match, and when I have an internet connection, I can stream or download any of my songs. 

Apple should be doing the same with photos. It should keep a little thumbnail of the photo on my phone, and if I want it, and I have a connection, I should be able to download it. Only the last 30 days worth of photos should be stored locally. The rest should be in iCloud. 

My complaints may sound small, or petty, but they're important for the long-term health of Apple. 

Venture capitalist Fred Wilson predicted that Apple's undoing would be its weak cloud services. 

Speaking at a conference, he said, "Apple is too rooted to hardware and I think hardware is increasingly becoming a commodity. Their stuff in the cloud is largely not good. I don't think they think about data and the cloud in the way you need to think about things."

While a lot of people look at Apple and focus on the big products like the iPhone and the iPad, Wilson is right that it's the nitty gritty stuff like iCloud that matters. iCloud, if done right, makes the experience of using an iPhone better. And that, ultimately, is what can separate Apple from its rivals. 

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A hacker group claims to have an exploit that would make it possible to regain control of lost or stolen iPhones that have been deactivated via iCloud, reports Apple Insider.

iCloud offers activation lock, which is specifically designed to "[make] it harder for anyone to use or sell your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch if it’s ever lost or stolen." As soon as you realize your iPhone is missing in such a way that you'll likely never see it again, such a deactivation protects your contacts, email, and photographs from being seen by prying eyes.

Now a hacker group called Team DoulCi says they're able to reactivate and use phones that have been disabled by activation lock. Security researcher Mark Loman says this is possible using a Windows PC because "the Windows version of iTunes does not properly verify security certificates."

This seems legit, according to Apple Insider:

The hackers, who are not affiliated with Loman, have demonstrated the attack's efficacy by sharing screenshots of what they say are calls to Apple's iCloud activation service. A number of others have chimed in on social media with similar success stories.

Loman suggests two reasons for this being the case: that it's a simple beginner's mistake, or that it was done on purpose, possibly to allow intelligence agencies like the NSA an unparalleled level of access to iCloud data.

Until Apple pushes out a fix, don't use iCloud on a public Wi-Fi network!

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Mac, iPhone, and iPad owners across Australia are reporting that their devices have been digitally held hostage by a hacker, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

The hacker, who goes by the name Oleg Pliss, is using Apple's Find My iPhone feature to remotely lock down iOS and Mac devices.

Pliss then demands that owners send payments through PayPal to regain control of their gadgets, according to the report, which was first spotted by 9to5Mac.

The ransom payments have ranged between $50 and $100, and the hacker demanded that these payments be directed to the email address lock404@hotmail.com.

Australian iOS and Mac users have discussed the issue via Twitter and Apple's own support forums. 

One iPhone 5 owner in Melbourne, Australia with the username veritylikestea wrote that his or her iPhone and iPad had been remotely locked. After the iPad had suddenly "locked itself," the user found a message on his or her phone saying that both devices had been hacked by Oleg Pliss, and that the hacker had demanded $100.

The hacker is likely a pseudonym meant to cover his or her true identity. As The Sydney Morning Herald reports, the real Oleg Pliss is a software engineer for Oracle. 

Those affected by the hack are being advised to contact Apple directly to regain control of their devices. There's no sign of the hacker impacting Apple users outside of Australia at this time. Apple allows users to set up two-factor authentication on their devices to avoid situations like this, which prompts you to provide another level of verification before allowing access to an iCloud account. 

PayPal said it's looking into the situation. We've reached out to Apple for comment and will update the article accordingly. 

SEE ALSO: Passwords Are A Horrible Way To Keep Us Safe—Here Are The Potential Alternatives

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Many people prefer Apple's iPhone to Android phones for two reasons: The iPhone is simple to use and ultra-reliable.

Android, by contrast, can sometimes be a little tricky if you're not the most technically minded person. Contacts in Android can be complicated — it pulls contacts from all sorts of different databases and you end up with a ton of duplicated contacts unless you sit down and learn how to manage them.

So if you want simple contacts, iPhone is the way to go.

But the iPhone also has a huge danger area when it comes to questionable contacts management: iCloud.

iCloud, Apple's storage and backup system, will delete all the contacts on your iPhone if you make one wrong step inside your iPhone's settings. I discovered this myself recently, to my horror. It is the ultimate smartphone nightmare. I was innocently picking through my phone's "settings" section, trying to figure out how to free up enough space on my phone to accept Apple's latest operating system update when suddenly ... all the contact info for everyone I know just disappeared.

Everyone — gone.

I couldn't even call my mom (she just moved and got a new phone number).

My tech blogger colleagues will be laughing at me for this, I realize. We're supposed to know how a phone works. But the problem with iCloud is that it works in such a counterintuitive way that even among Apple fans, people avoid using iCloud or don't understand it.

iCloud is the Apple system that keeps backups of all the data and files you want. You can preserve your music and email in iCloud if you want. But for contacts, iCloud works slightly differently than other types of cloud backups.

Many cloud backup systems work by uploading a copy of the file on your device into the cloud. So the "real" file you care about is on your device; if you lose it there will be a copy in the cloud. (Carbonite works this way; Dropbox's main innovation was to not have duplicate real/cloud files — the file is either on your device or in the Dropbox cloud, but not both at the same time.)

When it comes to your iPhone contacts and iCloud, however, the reverse is true. If you've got iCloud backup for your contacts switched on, your iPhone contacts are stored in iCloud, NOT on your phone.

So if you switch that off, they all get deleted.

Trust me, it's a nightmare. The good news is that your contacts come back if you switch iCloud back on again. But that only means your contacts are trapped inside iCloud — they're not actually on your phone.

Here is how to avoid deleting your iPhone contacts via iCloud:

1. Go into Settings.

2. Go into iCloud.

3. Look but do NOT touch the "Contacts" setting for iCloud.

4. If iCloud is "off" for contacts —  i.e. the slider is white — and your contacts are all still on your phone, then this means your contacts are stored only on your phone. This is great — unless you break your phone. Then your contacts are gone forever. You have no backup.

5. If iCloud is "on" for contacts — i.e. the slider is green — then your contacts are actually living in iCloud. If you switch iCloud off they will disappear from your phone. This means your contacts are trapped inside iCloud. This is great if you want to get a new Apple device — those contacts will magically transfer when you sign in.

6. If you do move the slider from on to off (green to white) then you'll be asked whether you want your contacts deleted or stored locally on your phone. Obviously do NOT delete your contacts. If you want them unhooked from iCloud, store them locally on the phone.

Bottom line: Apple has a function in its settings that will wipe out your contacts if you make a wrong move. This seems like a crazy thing to have on a phone, but there it is.

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Earlier this week a handful of Apple device owners in Australia reported that their iPhones, iPads, and Macs had been remotely accessed by a mysterious hacker named Oleg Pliss.

It's unclear what happened, but it looks like Pliss gained access to users' Apple IDs and their passwords. From there, he used Apple's Find My iPhone feature to  completely lock down their gadgets and demand a payment through PayPal to regain access.

The best way to protect yourself Oleg Pliss, or any hacker with similar ideas, is to simply ensure that you have a strong password.

Once a user has your iCloud credentials, he or she will be able to access your contacts and calendar, remotely like your iPhone or iPad, and completely wipe everything on it. 

Don't fall into the horrible habit of using variations of the same password for every important account you own.

It may take a little extra effort, but brainstorming unique and powerful passwords is the most accurate way to prevent unwanted intruders from obtaining your personal data.

One simple way to do this is to come up with a completely random sentence. Then, take the first letter of each word in that sentence. Throw in some numbers and symbols, and capitalize some of the letters. Now you have a password that's easy to keep track of as long as you can remember that sentence, but it'll just look like a mix of random characters to an outsider.

Keeping a password on your phone's lock screen is also important. iPhone users that keep their phones protected with a passcode have been able to unlock their device even after receiving an alert from Oleg Pliss, according to reports. Those who didn't, however, couldn't access their devices after receiving the message. If you don't know how to turn passcode on, Apple has some pretty detailed instructions here. 

Apple has issued a statement saying that the hack was not the result of a vulnerability within iCloud, but that those affected were the victims of a phishing scam. Here's what the company said according to ZDNet:

Apple takes security very seriously and iCloud was not compromised during this incident. Impacted users should change their Apple ID password as soon as possible and avoid using the same user name and password for multiple services. Any users who need additional help can contact Apple Care or visit their local Apple Retail Store.

PayPal has said in a statement that there's no account associated with the email address Pliss specified in his or her message. Here's the company's official statement:

PayPal can assure customers that no PayPal account is linked to the email address referenced in the reported scam. Further, if any PayPal customers have sent money via PayPal in relation to this matter their money will be refunded.  This is consistent with PayPal's policies to protect consumers against fraud.

Regardless of whether the incident was the result of an iCloud vulnerability or a phishing scam, having a strong password is one of the best defenses against hackers. The Oleg Pliss scenario is one of several account theft attacks that have surfaced over the past several weeks.  Just last week, eBay asked its users to change their passwords after cyber attackers reportedly used employee credentials to gain access to the company's corporate networks.

SEE ALSO: The Password Is A Horrible Way To Keep Us Safe—Here Are The Potential Alternatives

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Cloud computing is a massive market. 

BI Intelligence finds that there will be roughly 2.6 billion consumers accessing the cloud in 2014. That's almost identical to the 2.9 billion people connected to the internet worldwide. That means cloud computing services penetration is already at 89%.

While the cloud audience is mature, activity within the cloud will skyrocket over the next five years, thanks primarily to mobile. It's precisely the ability to access and consume files and data-heavy media on multiple devices that has helped inflate cloud traffic.  

• BI Intelligence estimates traffic to the cloud from mobile devices will grow at a compound annual rate of 63% between 2013 and 2018, which is significantly faster than the 22% rate for overall cloud traffic. 

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we find that cloud-based apps and media, including social networks and popular music- and video-streaming, will continue to make the cloud sticky for consumers. We define the "consumer cloud" as all services where user data — including emails, posts, files, media, etc. — are stored online on servers and shared with devices upon request, rather than stored natively on the device.

Here are the key points about how consumers are using the cloud: 

• Consumer cloud computing is already a mature mass market and mobile has led to explosive growth in cloud usage. Mobile consumers leverage the cloud to store and consume media, and sync their apps, files, and data across devices. We estimate traffic to the cloud from mobile devices will grow at a compound annual rate of 63% between 2013 and 2018, which is significantly faster than the 22% growth rate for overall cloud traffic.
• Yet despite so much usage, consumer awareness of cloud services remains low. Even though most online consumers use cloud-based sites and apps, survey data shows that they're confused about cloud computing and its value in helping organize digital services. 
• There are growing opportunities for wider penetration and usage for consumer cloud-based services. For example, consumer adoption of cloud storage apps, like Dropbox and Google Drive, remains low. A 2014 U.S. study found that only 29% of U.S. broadband internet users said they used cloud services to store their media and files. 
• There is no clear worldwide leader in the consumer cloud space — yet. Apple's iCloud held an early edge in markets where the iPhone is popular, but suites of cloud-based  services from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are catching up worldwide. More specialized cloud services like Dropbox and Evernote are trying to become platforms in their own right.

The report includes Excel charts that can be downloaded and put to use. 

In full, the report:

• Forecasts the total audience for cloud computing services over the next five years.
• Quantifies the amount of global traffic to the cloud from desktop and mobile devices.
• Compares consumer cloud awareness to current consumer adoption and usage rates.
• Surveys the opportunity for cloud-based service companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Dropbox. 
• Analyzes which cloud-based service companies are leading the space. 

SEE ALSO: BEACONS: What They Are, How They Work, And Why Apple's iBeacon Technology Is Ahead Of The Pack

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iCloud Mail, Apple’s free service that lets you send, receive, and organize your email across all of your computers or devices, is currently experiencing an outage.

The outage, which Apple says is currently affecting “0.1% of users,” has lasted since approximately 12:00 a.m. ET Monday. When users try to access their iCloud Mail, they may receive the following notification:

Apple’s system status page also confirms the iCloud Mail outage, and shows a brief timeline of the outage.

We’ve reached out to Apple to learn more about the outage and when users can expect service to return. We’ll update this story as soon as we learn more.

SEE ALSO: A Bigger Screen Might Not Be The Most Desired iPhone 6 Feature After All

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Consumers are already using the cloud widely, even if a lot of them don't know it. Approximately 90% of global internet users are already on the cloud in some manner, and that number will remain steady as internet usage spreads globally. 

But mobile has led to explosive growth in cloud usage. Mobile consumers leverage the cloud to store and consume media, and sync their apps, files, and data across devices. BI Intelligence estimates traffic to the cloud from mobile devices will grow at a compound annual rate of 63% between 2013 and 2018.

Even as cloud usage is exploding, though, consumers remained confused about the cloud, and services specifically aimed at cloud storage still only reach a small share of U.S. internet users. That means companies like Dropbox and Google Drive have a big opportunity to grab users. To do so, they're slashing prices and upping storage space. 

In a new report, BI Intelligence provides an exclusive comparison of how the different cloud storage companies are stacking up in terms of pricing and offerings. We put this in the context of cloud adoption and traffic, and also look at how well consumers understand the cloud. There's a big opportunity for cloud storage services that can help internet users understand the benefits of using the cloud, and create seamless services that allow people to easily access their files from any device. 

Access The Full Report By Signing Up For A Free Trial>>

Here are the key points from the report about how consumers are using the cloud: 

• Usage of services that employ cloud computing is already a mature mass market. Approximately 90% of global internet users are already on the cloud, and that number will remain steady as internet usage spreads globally.
• Consumer cloud computing is already a mature mass market and mobile has led to explosive growth in cloud usage. Mobile consumers leverage the cloud to store and consume media, and sync their apps, files, and data across devices. We estimate traffic to the cloud from mobile devices will grow at a compound annual rate of 63% between 2013 and 2018, which is significantly faster than the 22% growth rate for overall cloud traffic.
• Yet despite so much usage, consumer awareness of cloud services remains low. Even though most online consumers use cloud-based sites and apps, survey data shows that they're confused about cloud computing and its value in helping organize digital services. 
• There are growing opportunities for wider penetration and usage for consumer cloud-based services. For example, consumer adoption of cloud storage apps, like Dropbox and Google Drive, remains low. 
• There is no clear worldwide leader in the consumer cloud space — yet. Apple's iCloud held an early edge in markets where the iPhone is popular, but suites of cloud-based  services from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are catching up worldwide. More specialized cloud services like Dropbox and Evernote are trying to become platforms in their own right.

In full, the report:

• Forecasts the total audience for cloud computing services over the next five years.
• Quantifies the amount of global traffic to the cloud from desktop and mobile devices.
• Compares consumer cloud awareness to current consumer adoption and usage rates.
• Surveys the opportunity for cloud-based service companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Dropbox. 
• Analyzes which cloud-based service companies are leading the space. 

BI Intelligence is a subscription tech research service. For full access to all BI Intelligence's analysis, reporting, and downloadable charts, sign up for a free trial.

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Consumers aren't using cloud storage services in very large numbers, even as nearly every Internet user is on the cloud in some way.

Almost 90% of U.S. broadband users polled have at least heard of "cloud storage," according to a study from nScreenMedia.

But only 29% said they currently use it, and about half of the respondents had either never heard of cloud storage services, didn't use them, or reported not knowing anything about them.

This is a huge opportunity for cloud service companies to build out their audiences.

In particular, usage of cloud storage services, such as iCloud, Dropbox, and Microsoft OneDrive, will soar over the next few years as more consumers come to understand the value of storing their data, files, and media online.  

For now,  a new report from BI Intelligence finds that no one of these services is winning out (see chart at the bottom of this post), and this may be because each offers different features. For example, Box is geared toward the enterprise market, while Google Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive work with other Google or Microsoft services.

Access The Full Report By Signing Up For A Free Trial>>

These services appeal particularly to users already on the respective platforms who would like to have all of their data and files synced seamlessly. For the companies, the cloud is a means of keeping users within their ecosystem of products.

Here are the key points from the report about how consumers are using the cloud: 

• Usage of services that employ cloud computing is already a mature mass market. Approximately 90% of global internet users are already on the cloud, and that number will remain steady as internet usage spreads globally.
• Consumer cloud computing is already a mature mass market and mobile has led to explosive growth in cloud usage. Mobile consumers leverage the cloud to store and consume media, and sync their apps, files, and data across devices. We estimate traffic to the cloud from mobile devices will grow at a compound annual rate of 63% between 2013 and 2018, which is significantly faster than the 22% growth rate for overall cloud traffic.
• Yet despite so much usage, consumer awareness of cloud services remains low. Even though most online consumers use cloud-based sites and apps, survey data shows that they're confused about cloud computing and its value in helping organize digital services. 
• There are growing opportunities for wider penetration and usage for consumer cloud-based services. For example, consumer adoption of cloud storage apps, like Dropbox and Google Drive, remains low. 
• There is no clear worldwide leader in the consumer cloud space — yet. Apple's iCloud held an early edge in markets where the iPhone is popular, but suites of cloud-based  services from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are catching up worldwide. More specialized cloud services like Dropbox and Evernote are trying to become platforms in their own right.

In full, the report:

• Forecasts the total audience for cloud computing services over the next five years.
• Quantifies the amount of global traffic to the cloud from desktop and mobile devices.
• Compares consumer cloud awareness to current consumer adoption and usage rates.
• Surveys the opportunity for cloud-based service companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Dropbox. 
• Analyzes which cloud-based service companies are leading the space. 

BI Intelligence is a subscription tech research service. For full access to all BI Intelligence's analysis, reporting, and downloadable charts, sign up for a free trial.

Join the conversation about this story »

Consumers aren't using cloud storage services in very large numbers, even as nearly every internet user is on the cloud in some way.

Almost 90% of U.S. broadband users polled have at least heard of "cloud storage," according to a study from nScreenMedia.

But only 29% said they currently use it, and about half of the respondents had either never heard of cloud storage services, didn't use them, or reported not knowing anything about them.

This is a huge opportunity for cloud service companies to build out their audiences.

In particular, usage of cloud storage services, such as iCloud, Dropbox, and Microsoft OneDrive, will soar over the next few years as more consumers come to understand the value of storing their data, files, and media online.  

For now, a new report from BI Intelligence finds that no one of these services is winning out (see chart at the bottom of this post), and this may be because each offers different features. For example, Box is geared toward the enterprise market, while Google Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive work with other Google or Microsoft services.

Access The Full Report By Signing Up For A Free Trial>>

These services appeal particularly to users already on the respective platforms who would like to have all of their data and files synced seamlessly. For the companies, the cloud is a means of keeping users within their ecosystem of products.

Here are the key points from the report about how consumers are using the cloud: 

• Usage of services that employ cloud computing is already a mature mass market. Approximately 90% of global internet users are already on the cloud, and that number will remain steady as internet usage spreads globally.
• Consumer cloud computing is already a mature mass market and mobile has led to explosive growth in cloud usage. Mobile consumers leverage the cloud to store and consume media, and sync their apps, files, and data across devices. We estimate traffic to the cloud from mobile devices will grow at a compound annual rate of 63% between 2013 and 2018, which is significantly faster than the 22% growth rate for overall cloud traffic.
• Yet despite so much usage, consumer awareness of cloud services remains low. Even though most online consumers use cloud-based sites and apps, survey data shows that they're confused about cloud computing and its value in helping organize digital services. 
• There are growing opportunities for wider penetration and usage for consumer cloud-based services. For example, consumer adoption of cloud storage apps, like Dropbox and Google Drive, remains low. 
• There is no clear worldwide leader in the consumer cloud space — yet. Apple's iCloud held an early edge in markets where the iPhone is popular, but suites of cloud-based  services from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are catching up worldwide. More specialized cloud services like Dropbox and Evernote are trying to become platforms in their own right.

In full, the report:

• Forecasts the total audience for cloud computing services over the next five years.
• Quantifies the amount of global traffic to the cloud from desktop and mobile devices.
• Compares consumer cloud awareness to current consumer adoption and usage rates.
• Surveys the opportunity for cloud-based service companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Dropbox. 
• Analyzes which cloud-based service companies are leading the space. 

BI Intelligence is a subscription tech research service. For full access to all BI Intelligence's analysis, reporting, and downloadable charts, sign up for a free trial.

Join the conversation about this story »

Apple and iPhone users know that iCloud is the very worst product Apple makes. iCloud is the online storage facility that Apple uses to backup and coordinate your iTunes, contacts lists, and — as about 100 celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence have discovered— your photos. (Including those naked selfies you sent your significant other that one time, because, really, YOLO, right?)

So here's a layperson's guide to switching off iCloud, so your naked photos don't stay stuck in cyberspace where hackers can guess your password.

Here's the big picture:

iCloud is simply an online storage facility, like Dropbox or Google Drive or Google Music.

The problem is that iCloud doesn't work. Or, rather, iCloud does work, but the people who use it cannot figure out how it works. When you're in the consumer electronics market, those two conditions lead to the same result. People can't get iCloud to work the way they think it's working.

If you've used Dropbox or Google Drive, you probably don't have any difficulty figuring out "where" your stuff is online. iCloud, by contrast, makes it confusing to "know" where your stuff is — and that's why people end up leaving naked photos in it, even when they think they've deleted them.

We've seen it time and again. You can delete your photos from your iPhone, but they stay inside iCloud, clogging up space.

You delete apps from your iPhone but when you go to iTunes on your laptop, there they all are, undeleted.

iCloud is also part of the reason iMessage — the iPhone's default text-messaging system — doesn't work properly. As an iPhone user you probably think that the reason your Android friends don't get your texts is because their phones are cheap rubbish. Wrong. It's because iMessage is flawed— it's trying to find your friends in iCloud first before giving up and then — maybe — sending the text on to your friend's phone number.

And guess what? If you make one wrong move inside your iPhone's iCloud system settings, you can accidentally delete all your contacts from your iPhone!

Apple still has not fixed iMessage, although the company has said it is trying to. And Apple also says it has fixed the password security flaw in Find My iPhone that can give hackers access to your iCloud photos.

Nonetheless, you probably want to check that iCloud isn't hanging on to stuff you thought you deleted, and you want to make sure that iCloud isn't backing up your photos the next time you start drunk-texting your booty call.

Here is what you have to do:

1. On your iPhone, turn iCloud off.

First check out Apple's official guide to turning iCloud off. The company recommends that you go to Settings > iCloud, then tap to off iCloud features (see image at right). You want those green buttons to go gray to make sure they're off. But note that the photos setting is at the bottom and has a different button — turn that off too!

2. Delete photos in your Photo Stream.

You may have noticed that when you take a photo on your iPhone, it saves a copy of the photo in your camera album and also a copy of the photo appears in your "Photo Stream." The photo stream is gathering your photos and preparing to send them to iCloud. It's no good just deleting the naked selfie from your camera album — you have to delete it from Photo Stream too. (Your photos will still backup into iPhoto the next time you plug your iPhone into your laptop — so you can save them there if you want to free up space on your phone.)

3. Note that Photo Stream/iCloud saves your photos for 30 days!

4. Turn iCloud off on your desktop.

iCloud is baffling — even for Apple fans. You might want to also go to iCloud.com and poke around in the account and settings menus there, too. Do the same thing — turn "off" any type of media that you don't want living in the cloud.

5. Go to iCloud in the settings of your MacBook.

6. Sign in to iCloud

7. Now go through all these buttons and menus, and turn off anything you don't want living in the cloud. Obviously, "Photo stream" is most important here.

8. Go to iPhoto on your laptop/deskptop and make sure there are no old naked selfies in there, too.

A lot of people just let iPhoto suck all the photos off their phone every time they plug their iPhone into their computer — it's quick and convenient, and you can have all your iPhone photos right there on your machine any time you want to see them.

But the problem with mass upload backups is that users aren't as diligent about going through them all and deleting the ones they don't want stored forever. While your iPhoto pictures are not necessarily being uploaded to iCloud if you've got iCloud photo backup switched off, they are probably available for anyone to see if they have access to your home computer.

• Alleged Hacker Behind Massive Leak Of Nude Celebrity Photos Says It Took 'Several Months' To Pull Off

• It's Time To Fix iCloud

• Apple Stock Is At An All-Time High Ahead Of iPhone 6 — Is It Heading For A Massive Selloff?

Join the conversation about this story »

In a statement Tuesday, Apple said the hack that caused nude photos of celebrities to leak was not the result of a widespread attack on its iCloud system. Instead, the hackers targeted the accounts of individual celebrities.

Here's the statement:

We wanted to provide an update to our investigation into the theft of photos of certain celebrities. 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. 

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 http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4232. 

But Apple's response still leaves some unanswered questions. If the culprits weren't able to infiltrate iCloud, then how were they able to target individuals? And what, if anything, can Apple do to prevent it?

As soon as the statement was released, several journalists and tech pundits pointed out that Apple appeared to be placing the blame on the user, not the fact that Apple IDs seem to be easy to crack if you have the right tools.

Apple sure is passing the buck with that statement.

— danprimack (@danprimack) September 2, 2014

basically, Apple’s denial of an iCloud breach is that the vulnerability that allowed accounts to be hacked doesn’t count as a “breach"

— The real Jon Brodkin (@jbrodkin) September 2, 2014

Apple basically says "You don't know how to do passwords."http://t.co/GgNjdOWji4

— Alex Medina (@mrmedina) September 2, 2014

There are several theories as to how the hackers were able to access iCloud accounts. The most prominent one is the so-called "brute force" tactic, which means hackers use advanced software and other maneuvers to guess an individual user's ID and password.

Apple's statement implies that hackers did use a "brute force" method or something similar in the recent celebrity photo hack. Here's that excerpt from the statement:

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.

But what Apple doesn't say is whether a flaw on its end allowed the hackers to employ brute-force methods. Other than enabling 2-step authentication, which requires you to validate your password through a secondary device, there's not much assurance that you're safe from being targeted. Still, as TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino points out, 2-step authentication won't protect your photos and some other personal data. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment beyond the prepared statement.

There's more.

As Sam Biddle of Valleywag discovered, celebrities aren't the only victims of iCloud photo hacking. There's an entire message board on a site called AnonIB dedicated to "iCloud rippers" who apparently use similar techniques to steal nude photos from random women. This was going on long before nude photos of celebrities leaked over the weekend.

So it shouldn't be a surprise that the narrative has shifted against Apple. Instead of explaining how iCloud user IDs are vulnerable, or why it hasn't heavily promoted 2-step verification, Apple only delivered a delicate statement for the public to go on. We could learn more as Apple's investigations continue, but what we have so far isn't very reassuring.

Still, this kind of problem isn't exclusive to Apple. Home Depot said Tuesday it was investigating a potential security breach. And the same methods hackers used to access iCloud accounts can be applied to Android phones, Windows Phones, BlackBerrys ... whatever.

Until a better solution comes out, your best bet is to enable 2-step (some services call it 2-factor) verification on everything you can. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing.

SEE ALSO: One way the iCloud hackers may have been able to break into celebrity accounts

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After private photographs of some of the most famous women in the world were posted online, journalists, PR representatives, and curious internet users scrambled to figure out how a nameless hacker had gained access to the cellphones of the rich and famous.

When shocked internet users on underground forums tracked down the person believed to be behind the leak, his explanation was startlingly simple: iCloud. 

After hundreds of private photographs were posted online, many commenters struggled to believe that someone had gained access to Apple's online service. The tech giant's online storage and backup service is praised by the company for its simplicity, that it "just works." And the hack could not have come at a worse time for Apple, which on Tuesday will stage its biggest event of the year: the launch of iPhone 6, a smartwatch, and a new operating system for its Macs, all of which are likely to have new features linked to iCloud.

As leaked photographs continued to be posted online, theories emerged regarding their source. Some suggested that a "brute force" hack recently unveiled by Russian security researchers was to blame, while some internet commenters wondered whether venue Wi-Fi at the Emmy Awards had been compromised. But the truth is far more disturbing: The leaked celebrity photos don't originate from a single hack but instead from a collector who gradually added to his haul over months before suddenly deciding to post it online. 

This is the story of that collector, who goes by the screen name "OriginalGuy."

AnonIB: The Offshoot Hacker Community

The anonymous online forum AnonIB launched in May 2006 as an offshoot of the notorious image board 4chan. By mid-2006, 4chan's infamous /b/ forum had become a hostile mess of child pornography, Anonymous hackers, and online trolls. On Aug. 23, 4chan came under a DDoS attack launched by its own users, and many frequent posters left the site to seek alternative message boards. A group of longtime 4chan posters arrived at AnonIB, which offered a near-identical service.

As AnonIB grew in popularity, the site's administrators relaxed the rules. Child pornography and other illegal content were frequently posted on AnonIB, which eventually led to a series of FBI raids on the forum's servers and administrators. After years of upheaval, the site reappeared earlier this year, and the users returned to posting.

iCloud Hacking Ring

As well as hosting vast amounts of pornography, AnonIB also plays host to a ring of skilled hackers who have learned how to obtain naked photographs of women by breaking into iCloud accounts. 

The /stol/ board on AnonIB (short for "Stolen" or "Obtained Photos") serves as a global meeting hub for iCloud hackers. Using specialist password-cracking tools and guessing targets' security questions through Apple's iForgot password reset form, AnonIB hackers are consistently able to gain access to iCloud accounts with only an email address.

Once inside, the hackers get to work to extract photographs as quickly as possible, using file-retrieval software to download photo backups.

'OriginalGuy' The Porn Collector

The leaked celebrity photos weren't the result of a single hack but were instead hoarded over a period of months by one well-connected figure in underworld porn forums. As the Daily Mail reports, AnonIB user "OriginalGuy" has been identified as the source of the leaks, and posts seen by Business Insider on both AnonIB and 4Chan indicate that he has regularly contributed to celebrity porn threads on both sites. But despite knowing the user who leaked the trove of images, we still don't know the identities behind the hackers. 

In a post on AnonIB shortly after the main leak of celebrity photos, OriginalGuy explained to other users how he had built up a collection of photos so explosive that image boards were struggling to keep up with page views.

The post above makes it clear that the naked celebrity photographs were assembled over a period of months by a team of collectors who specialized in valuable celebrity pornography.

On Tuesday, Apple released a statement that appears to confirm that the exploit favored by users of AnonIB was used to hack into celebrity iCloud accounts. Within the statement, Apple blames "a very targeted attack on user names, passwords, and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet."

AnonIB hackers use email addresses, password-cracking software, and weak security questions to hack accounts, making it quite likely that the tactics of the hackers at AnonIB were used to gain access to the celebrity photos. 

The Nuclear Option

One of the most puzzling parts of the celebrity photo leak is why OriginalGuy decided to share his collection at all. With a haul built up over months, the collector claimed to have spent his own money on images of big-name celebrities. Why, then, were photos posted online on a quiet Sunday afternoon before Labor Day? 

Pornography hoarders often do not possess skills or talents that they can use online, like an ability to hack. Instead, hoarders are defined by the content they keep. One of the internet's most legendary digital hoarders was "Freezer," a poster on invite-only torrent networks who repeatedly taunted other users with details about the rare music he owned. After his death, it was discovered that Freezer had taken his collection to the grave, asking his family in his will to destroy all the tapes. Whether pornography or music, the knowledge that you possess content nobody else does can be a powerful intoxicant.

So if porn collections are so valuable, why did OriginalGuy post his? It seems that OriginalGuy had a sudden realization that his collection wasn't so valuable after all.

Rumors of "major win" had circulated online for weeks before the leak. "Win" is a term used to refer to naked or sexual images of women found through hacking their online accounts. It's possible that part of OriginalGuy's collection had, against his knowledge, been sold to somebody else.

OriginalGuy admitted to paying "a lot via bitcoin" for a portion of the images when they were being traded between celebrity porn collectors on Friday and Saturday. As Deadspin reports, photographs had been shared online for weeks before OriginalGuy purchased them, potentially rendering his collection of little value.

Hours before the photos emerged, posters on AnonIB caught wind of a coming leak of celebrity images. While you might expect pornography fans to react with excitement over such news, many were terrified of what would happen next.

OriginalGuy knew that leaking his collection would have dire consequences for the iCloud hackers at /stol/ and the celebrity porn fans at 4chan. Whether he was angry over discovering that his collection was already online, or disappointed to learn that about 30% of his images were fake, OriginalGuy took to AnonIB on the afternoon before Labor Day to begin sharing his collection.

The Leak

The first site that OriginalGuy visited was AnonIB, his online "home." Censored versions of the leaked photographs were posted first to persuade users to donate bitcoin to see the full versions. 

OriginalGuy seemed aware that his actions were going to bring down the iCloud hackers and celebrity photo-trading ring, remarking that the "bubble" was "going to burst soon." His posts became increasingly frantic as he either expressed frustration over a lack of bitcoin donations, or thanked users for sending him the digital currency. 

After posting photos of Jennifer Lawrence on AnonIB, it seems that OriginalGuy has trouble connecting to the site. Commenting after the hack, OriginalGuy gave insight into what happened as he was leaking the images:

I didn't take the money and run. Shit got weird once I started posting samples. AnonIB must have IP blocked me. I was spending all of my time trying to find proxies, and then when I could get on the site, was being hammered by everyone and I couldn't even post. I got some private requests through email, but none ever came through. People wanted shit for free. Sure, I got $120 with my Bitcoin address, but when you consider how much time was spent acquiring this stuff (I'm not the hacker, just a collector), and the money (I paid a lot via Bitcoin as well to get certain sets when this stuff was being privately traded on Friday/Saturday) I really didn't get close to what I was hoping for. Mainly because of the extra Bitcoin spammers spamming their own address ... I proved I had shit, but people wanted more and more for free ... When I posted samples, someone was tracking me, trying to find me. My ISP kept cutting out. Weird emails were coming in. It kinda freaked me out and I had to leave for a couple of hours.

It's unclear whether OriginalGuy then visited 4chan to continue posting his images, or whether someone else with access to the collection, sensing that OriginalGuy had decided to cash in, began posting instead. Either way, once the images appeared on the more popular message board, the leak quickly attracted thousands of internet users. A Reddit live thread was created to catalogue and archive the images as they appeared, although it later buckled under the traffic it received.

The Aftermath

After OriginalGuy "dumped" his collection, many experienced iCloud hackers and celebrity photo traders declared the industry over. Following the hack, posters on AnonIB discussed the repercussions for their industry.

While iCloud hackers might believe that their exploit will be closed, Apple has yet to make changes to the iForgot password reset system. OriginalGuy never returned to leak more of his collection, perhaps realizing that his postings on underground web forums were attracting widespread attention. And as for AnonIB, the site remains live, and iCloud hackers are continuing to advertise their skills to users looking to steal naked photographs of women on the internet.

NOW WATCH: Facebook And Google 'Degrade Our Humanity,' Says 4chan Founder

SEE ALSO: Inside The iCloud-Hacking Ring That Leaked Those Naked Celebrity Photos

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Days after a leak of celebrity photos exposed a vulnerability in iCloud, Apple has updated its developer guidelines to warn app developers that the health data of users can't be stored using the company's own online storage service.

9to5Mac reports that amongst the changes to the App Store Review Guidelines is an additional rule barring developers from storing HealthKit data in iCloud.

The new line added yesterday to Apple's guidelines makes it completely clear that iCloud is a no-go for the health data of users:

"Apps using the HealthKit framework that store users’ health information in iCloud will be rejected."

The Apple review guidelines are used to inform app developers of what is and isn't allowed in the App Store, with Apple making it clear that it will reject any apps that breach their guidelines.

Apple unveiled its HealthKit app in June during its WWDC event. The app brings together the health data of users, gathered using apps and wearable devices that monitor things like blood pressure and calorie intake. The unified app means that all of a user's health data is in one place, making it a clear target for hackers. But on its website, Apple is clear on how secure the data is stored, saying "A user’s health information is stored in a centralized and secure location."

SEE ALSO: APPLE STATEMENT ON CELEBRITY HACKING: Our Systems Weren't Breached

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Tim Cook must be furious.

The word "outraged"— not a term normally seen in an Apple press release — was notable for its presence in the company's statement on the iCloud naked-celebrity photo hack.

The launch of Apple's iPhone 6, set for Tuesday, is now less than a week away.

It's Apple's most important event of the year — the entire company depends on the success of the three new products Cook is going to unveil there (two iPhone 6 models and a smartwatch).

Instead of quiet excitement, Apple is in disarray because hackers have been successfully trawling iCloud for photos of naked celebrities.

Instead of savoring the first all-new product from Apple since the death of company founder Steve Jobs, Cook is watching his brand take a beating.

Instead of putting the finishing touches on his script for the big media even next week, Cook has found himself dealing with a crisis:

• Tuesday night, Apple's iOS App Store, iTunes store, and iBookstore were offline for nearly six straight hours. Those products work with iCloud, but it is not clear whether the outage was linked to Apple's efforts to fix iCloud security.
• That came after Apple said it was "outraged" that iCloud had been hacked and confirmed it was working with the FBI to trace the hackers.
• Apple was also forced to fix the Find My iPhone app to prevent "brute-force" attacks that let hackers guess your iCloud password.
• Apple has barred developers using its Health app and HealthKit platform from storing data in iCloud.
• iCloud's brand has been completely sullied by the hack, and Apple is no doubt racing to bring new antihacking solutions to the security it asks users to pass.

Trust is a huge part of the Apple brand.

People use Apple because its products "just work" and because hackers and malware tend to operate on Windows and Android systems, not Apple's OS and iOS platforms. Cook actually mentioned this specifically at Apple's previous major product event, WWDC.

Now, Cook is in danger of seeing that trust slip away. He was just about to ask consumers to place even more faith in iCloud, which will sit at the center of ambitious plans to extend Apple's mobile payments capabilities (through NFC and Touch ID), its online e-commerce strategy (through iTunes, the App Store, and Beats), through improvements to its Mac operating system (OS X Yosemite will have an iCloud Drive storage system), and through Handoff, a new system that lets you switch your work between your Mac and an iPad seamlessly.

Instead of the tech media being filled with stories about how exciting this is all going to be, blogs are running "how-to" guides for people who want to switch off iCloud.

Cook can fix this, of course.

Two-step verification for password usage will most likely be introduced to all Apple products, and Touch ID's fingerprint technology will most likely go a long way to reassuring users that only they have access to their own stuff in the cloud.

But it will take time.

Cook doesn't have that time. He's got to walk on stage on Tuesday and either not make any mention of iCloud — which would itself be news — or mention iCloud in a way that reassures Apple customers that it's not a total disaster area.

Cook seems suited for the job. He radiates calm and reassurance. He's not a polarizing jerk. (Steve Jobs and his famous temper would be as likely to make things worse as make them better.)

In the long run, Apple will figure this out. This is not directly Apple's fault after all — the hackers are the culprits, not the technology. The Apple ecosystem is so good at locking in customers that even those people whose iCloud storage consists entirely of naked selfies will think twice about ditching their iPhones. Apple will be fine — it's a glitch in an underlying business that is ludicrously healthy.

But in the short term, it's about as bad as it can possibly be.

It will be an incredible high-wire act. Let's hope he pulls it off.

NOW WATCH: The Full Story Of Elon Musk Is More Awesome Than You Realize

SEE ALSO: How To Switch Off iCloud So Hackers Can't Find Your Naked Photos

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Apple on Tuesday confirmed that various celebrities using iPhones have had their iTunes accounts hacked by third parties who managed to steal sensitive information including nude pictures and videos, but revealed that a massive iCloud security issue isn’t to blame. Instead, attackers used other means of associating user names and passwords to get into their targets’ iCloud accounts. Wired has learned more details about the massive hack, revealing that a law enforcement tool may have been used in the attacks.

Read more: Claimed hacker behind iCloud nude photos theft says it took ‘months’ of planning to pull off heist

The compromising data theft has been denied by some of the many celebrities affected, although others, including actress Jennifer Lawrence, confirmed that the nude pictures that have been posted online are genuine.

To grab them, as well as videos and other compromising data on a phone, hackers have apparently used a software tool called Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker (EPPB) to download data from iCloud backups, likely after using a tool to actually guess the password of a certain user, such as the recently revealed iBrute tool that could have been used for brute force attacks on iCloud accounts.

The EPPB program, developed by Russian forensics company Elcomsoft, can be used to break into any iOS device and is mainly destined to reach the hands of law enforcement, but the company doesn’t perform checks on whether a buyer comes from such agencies. Moreover, the software is rather affordable at $399, not to mention that illegal copies can be downloaded from torrent sites by anyone interested in actually using it.

“All that’s needed to access online backups stored in the cloud service are the original user’s credentials including Apple ID…accompanied with the corresponding password,” Elcomsoft’s website reads. “Data can be accessed without the consent of knowledge of the device owner, making Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker an ideal solution for law enforcement and intelligence organizations.”

Once EPPB is used, an attacker can get into a person’s iTunes account, and perform a restore from iCloud backup that would give him or her access to everything on the iPhone, including pictures, videos, notes, contacts and more.

Security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski, who recently questioned some of the security-related practices at Apple when it comes to iOS devices, has analyzed the meta data of the pictures published online, revealing that the photos likely come from a downloaded backup, as obtained with an EPPB-like piece of software.

“You don’t get the same level of access by logging into someone’s [web] account as you can by emulating a phone that’s doing a restore from an iCloud backup,” Zdziarski said. “If we didn’t have this law enforcement tool, we might not have the leaks we had.”

It’s important to note that these law enforcement tools that can be used to retrieve data from an iPhone work regardless of whether Apple consents or not, as they only have to reverse engineer Apple’s protocol for communicating between iCloud and iOS devices to get access, rather than rely on any backdoor in iOS.

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iCloud hackers have known for years of an easy way to identify the email address behind an iCloud account. Finding an email address may not sound particularly valuable, but once iCloud hackers know the email address behind an account, they're one step away from gaining full access to the account and raiding its photo backups. 

When iCloud hackers find a target, they set about attempting to discover the login information for their iCloud account. The first step is identifying the email address used. Often, hackers will be aware of several email addresses purported to be used by the target. This is where Apple makes it easy for budding nude photo hackers. Apple allows users to test unlimited amounts of emails incredibly quickly. 

Hackers explained on pornography forum AnonIB how they use Apple's "Create Account" page to check through masses of possible email addresses. All hackers need to do is enter a potential email address into the email field, and Apple instantly displays whether it's connected to an iCloud account. They don't need to submit any forms, and Apple doesn't limit the amount of tries you have to enter an email address.

Apple instantly tells users whether an email address is linked to an iCloud account

A red circle next to "Be available" means that an email address is tied to an iCloud account

As an anonymous AnonIB iCloud hacker explains:

"When you type it in, it will show 3 things, one being that it is a valid email, one being that it's not currently in use, and a third thing I can't currently remember. Who cares lol. If it shows a green dot next to 'currently in use,' that means it's not being used. If you get a red dot, you're golden, that means it IS being used."

Hackers keep trying possible emails until they get a red dot, indicating that the email address is tied to an iCloud account. From there, they either attempt to crack the password or begin the process of guessing the details used to protect the account.

The first test is to enter the target's date of birth. This will be easy to find for a celebrity

The final step is to answer the security questions. For celebrities, the information will often be readily available online.

Apple has previously moved to clamp down on methods that can be used to attempt to discover login data en masse. On Monday, Apple patched an exploit discovered by a Russian security researcher that allowed hackers to use the Find My iPhone app to test thousands of potential passwords for an account.

However, Apple has yet to modify its sign-up process or iForgot system to deter hackers from gaining access to iCloud accounts. The techniques openly discussed by iCloud hackers on public forums such as AnonIB remain open to use.

SEE ALSO: 'OriginalGuy': The Full Story Of The iCloud Hacker Who Leaked Those Naked Celebrity Photos

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In technology, there’s no such thing as "unhackable." Female stars like Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Rihanna, Kirsten Dunst and a slew of others found that out the hard way when an anonymous 4chan user leaked a bevy of naked smartphone photos of them on the image-sharing forum.

Lewd or risqué celebrity selfies going public may sound like just another day in Hollywood, but the details in this exploit could send a chill down any iPhone user’s spine. The reason: The hack supposedly targeted Apple’s iCloud service—specifically the Photo Stream feature used by millions of iPhone owners since its launch with iOS 5.

Like many other iPhone users, some of those victims thought deleting the images from their phones got rid of them forever. So they trashed the pics, only to see them sweep across the Internet and Twitter this weekend.

iConfused

The idea behind Photo Stream is to make all of your recent pictures available on your other Apple devices—Macs, iPhones, iPads, and so on. Shoot a selfie with an iPhone, and it shows up on your iPad; capture your iPad's screen, and the image pops up on your Mac (via iPhoto). 

See also: For Once, The Entire Internet Isn't Blaming The Victims Of This Nude Celebrity Photo Leak

When the service rolled out in 2011, it was fairly minimal. iPhone users couldn’t even delete images from Photo Stream. When they manually removed pictures from their Camera Rolls, those pics stubbornly stayed put in the cloud service. Eventually, Apple added the capability, but in a rather confusing way.

Consider these three scenarios:

1. Delete a photo from your Camera Roll (under the Albums tab), and it’s gone from your phone’s storage. However, it's still there in Photo Stream. 

2. You could remove a picture from your Photo Stream (also in the Albums tab), but it will remain in your iPhone’s Camera Roll. 

3. You can delete an image from both the Camera Roll and Photo Stream at once, but only in a certain area: the Photos tab (not Albums).

According to the official help documents, Photo Stream photos are supposed to age out at the 30-day mark—which should be plenty of time to download the pics to your Apple devices. But it also says your iPhone and iPad will keep a rolling 1,000-photo stash. I have some in there that are years old, for instance. In those cases, you may well have old snap shots hanging around that you thought were long gone.  

iOS 8 will bring a few changes to the way iPhones handle photos, but it’s not clear if these will clarify anything or just make things more confusing.

Right now, iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads deal with images in three ways: All photos you snap with those devices wind up in both the Camera Roll and Photo Stream. The Apple gadgets also display all the images in your Photo Stream, to show pics taken on any of your other mobile devices, or Photo Streams your friends and family members share with you. Finally, the device holds whatever images or albums you sync from your Mac’s iPhoto software through iTunes.

The next version of Apple's mobile operating system will introduce a new iCloud Photo Library. Think of it as a way of replacing iPhoto syncing through iTunes with a cloud option, one that sells extra storage for a dirt-cheap price: 5GB free, 20GB of storage for $1 per month, or 200GB for $4 monthly.

See also: How To Protect Yourself In The Cloud

This sounded like a great deal when Apple announced it in June, but the latest leaks could make it less attractive. And it still does nothing to ease the confusion of Camera Roll vs. Photo Stream management.

How To Protect Your iPhone Photos

If there’s any nervousness about the safety of iPhone photos, that may be because Apple has said precious little about it.

This is bad timing for the tech company, which is on the verge of holding a much-anticipated press conference next week to reveal new devices. Apple announced it had investigated the hacks, and put the blame on "targeted attacks" on celebrities' passwords and security questions, dismissing reports of a possible security hole in its Find My iPhone software.

But plenty of sites manage to protect people using just usernames and passwords. Apple's response should rightly leave iPhone owners wondering if they shouldn’t shut off the Photo Stream feature entirely.

It’s not a bad idea, if you have a lot of sensitive images you want to protect. But you’ll have to weigh that against the convenience of having your recent pics across all of your Apple gadgets—or the possibility that Photo Stream could save the day if the worst should happen to your iPhone. (Take it from me—when my phone shattered on a concrete floor a couple of years ago, I was heartbroken over losing several recent images, until Photo Stream gave them back to me.)

Here are a variety of tactics to boost the security:

• You can shut off Photo Stream by going into Settings, then “Photos & Camera” to switch off the My Photo Stream feature. Then never upload your images to any cloud service—including Google or Dropbox. For the super paranoid, only sync those pics to your own physical hard drive, and make sure it’s not connected to the Internet.

• When you’re only talking about a few confidential photos, you may want to manage your Photo Streaminstead. Basically, you’re letting Photo Stream sync all of your pics, but you manually remove specific ones.

• Turn on two-step verification. Like many other companies, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and other services, Apple offers two-step verification. If anyone (including you) attempts to access your iCloud/iTunes account by using your login, the service will text your phone with a temporary code for you to enter, theoretically preventing them from getting in.

The company doesn’t promote this feature, nor does it make it simple to use. In some cases—when you’ve made major changes to your account—it requires users to hang on through a waiting period first. According to the Apple support page: 

Significant changes can include a password reset or new security questions. This waiting period helps Apple make sure that you are the only person accessing or modifying your account. While you are in this waiting period, you can continue using your account as usual with all Apple services and stores.

In theory, it makes sense. If someone breaches your account, they could tie a different phone number to it, effectively locking you out. However, if you have reason to believe your account has been compromised, that's exactly when you would sensibly want to change your password. In those circumstances, the delay could prevent you from adding an extra layer of security quickly. (Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its security practices.)

There’s only a week before Apple’s media event, where it’s expected to unveil the new iPhone 6, as well as a possible new smartwatch. With a potentially burgeoning product lineup, the last thing CEO Tim Cook and his team wants is for security concerns to mar the idyllic iOS landscape they’re trying to portray.

Lead photo via Shutterstock

SEE ALSO: The Incredibly Simple Trick Hackers Use To Get Into Your Apple iCloud Account

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You probably heard by now about the nude celebrity photos circulating the internet, with the hacker allegedly responsible saying he got the photos from Apple's iCloud.

You may be thinking, "I'm not a celebrity. No one would be interested in my naked or otherwise embarrassing photos."

That could be true. But maybe not. One site where the hacker posted the celebrity photos is known as AnonIB, an anonymous porn-sharing forum where people upload all sorts of lewd photos of all sorts of people, not just celebrities.

Then there are "revenge porn" sites where people who have an ax to grind (like an "ex") might post your naked pics, and you have to pay to get them removed.

Apple has denied that iCloud has been hacked, but hackers don't have to actually break into Apple's servers to get your photos. All they need is to crack your iCloud password.

When it comes to photos, iCloud is notoriously hard to use and you may not even know you've got pictures stored on it. If you go to Apple's iCloud.com right now and log in, you won't see them there. You'll see mail, contacts, etc., but no photos.

So here are step-by-step directions on how to tell if your photos are on iCloud, how to delete photos, and then how to check to make sure they are really deleted.

First, check to see if your photos are being sent to iCloud. In iOS, click on Settings/iCloud. Scroll down to "Photos." If it says "On" you have photos on iCloud.

The photos being shared are the ones in "My Photo Stream" in the Photos app.

 To find your Photo Stream, open your Photos app. On the bottom, click on "Albums."

 You may actually have to click on "Albums" on the top of the next screen, too.

You should then see a screen that looks like this. Notice how there are fewer photos in my Camera Roll (155 photos) than in my Photo Stream (169)? I have deleted photos from my phone that are still available via iCloud.

If you have more than one photo you want to delete from iCloud, click on Select, then on all the photos you want to delete.

Be careful about which photos you delete. Getting rid of them from Photo Stream gets rid of them on your other devices, as well.

To check if the photos are really gone, fire up another Apple device and look at your Photo Stream in your Photos app.

On a Mac, this is trickier than it seems. Your iCloud photos are NOT in your Pictures folder in Finder. They are tucked away in the iPhoto app.

Open iPhoto and then look for the iCloud folder. Then click on My Photo Stream. The photos you deleted from your iPhone should be gone. Also check your other streams, just in case you accidentally shared them via iCloud to one of those streams. 

If the photo is still there, or if you find other naked selfies you want gone, you can delete them from iCloud via iPhoto, too.

Click on the photo and then click on the delete button on your keyboard. Then confirm by clicking "Delete Photo."

You might want to make sure it's also gone from the iPhone or iPad. Look for the photo in Photos/Albums/Camera Roll.

If it's not in iPhone's Photo Streams or in your Mac's iPhoto iCloud folder, you've successfully deleted it from iCloud.

SEE ALSO: New iOS 8 Apps Will Work 'Like Magic,' Software Tester Says

SEE ALSO: Here's How Upgrading To iOS 8 Could Mess Up Some Of Your Apps

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The brother of the alleged celebrity nude photo leaker, Bryan Hamade, told Buzzfeed that the entire situation is a "massive misunderstanding."

After the leak of hundreds of nude celebrity photos earlier this week, 27-year-old web developer Hamade became the main suspect, thanks mainly to sleuthing Reddit and 4chan users.

Hamade previously denied being the original leaker to both Buzzfeed and The Daily Mail, but now his brother Andrew Hamade has also spoken to Buzzfeed's Charlie Warzel to deny Bryan's involvement. 

Andrew Hamade said that even their mother is currently getting "borderline-harassed," despite the fact that Bryan apparently hasn't been contacted by any law enforcement officials. 

"Right now my brother won’t turn on his phone because so many people are finding his number," Hamade told Warzel. "If he turns it on its just like a massacre."

Bryan Hamade, speaking to MailOnline Monday, had claimed that he had "only reposted one thing that was posted elsewhere," and that he was not the original leaker. Andrew Hamade says that his brother has been with an attorney all day and a statement will likely be made tomorrow.

SEE ALSO: Man Accused Of Leaking Naked Celebrity iCloud Photos Denies Everything

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