New Zealand’s Internet Crashes

A New Zealand Internet provider has been the victim of major nationwide Internet failure caused by a number of users clicking fake links to view nude photos. The links promised to provide access to nude photos of celebrities released to the Internet recently in a scandalous photo hacking incident. Unfortunately, clicking on the said link only caused malware to be installed into the computers of the users.

The interest in celebrities’ nude pictures comes after a massive hacking scandal hit the US on August 31st where a lot of nude celebrity’s photos were illegally released to the public after they were procured illegally by hackers. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lawrence are just some of those whose naked pictures were released to the public following what is thought to be a breach in Apple’s iCloud storage systems. The stolen pictures were posted to online communities on online platforms Reddit and 4chan.

Malware Triggering Installation of DDoS Attacks

While many in the celebrity community have come out to ask people not to look at the pictures as a way of protesting the criminal act through which they were accessed, many still wanted to have a look. This curiosity led to many New Zealand residents triggering Spark’s Internet failure. The breakdown of the Internet network has reportedly caused about 600,000 Internet users to have their Internet connections cut down.

The malware that has caused this problem is apparently being triggered through a link that promises to give people access to the stolen pictures. The malware is software that triggers the installation of DDoS or Distributed Denial of Service attacks that lead to Internet failure.

Security experts following the case have discovered that the links have originated from a twitter link with hash tags containing the name of one of the actresses whose nude photos were leaked by the name of Jennifer Lawrence. As a result, many people are a wary of clicking on links in emails or files even after Spark’s Internet access was restored to normal.

The photo hacking scandal has affected quite a number of celebrities although many of them have come out to categorically state that the photos are fake photos. This incident brings into play the growing problem of cyber crime that has recently hit the Internet.

New Zealand’s Internet Crashes

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