An expert explains how someone can access your deleted photos.

After you heard about those photos of Jennifer Lawrence, did your mind cast back to your photo folder?

If you have or have ever taken nude photos of yourself, there are a few things you need to know about how protected you are. According to the experts, there’s no such thing as a deleted photo. Because even if you’ve moved your images to ‘trash,’ chances are that they’re still out there.

Publisher of Cybershack and Today Show IT expert, Charlie Brown told Mamamia that information on a computer or phone can be accessed VERY easily by hackers.

“When you have an IOS device like an iPad or Mac or iPhone, you have the option of opening an iCloud account and it very simply syncs all the data together. The iCloud can be accessed pretty simply with a username and password”

MM Team: So how does someone like Jennifer Lawrence get hacked?

Charlie Brown: “In her case, it’s likely she’d loaded her photos on to the iCloud. Maybe even unintentionally. The iCloud used to be hacked by social engineering, a technique from the past where a hacker would call Apple and convince them they were the owner of the account and give them access. This was quite common. Apple believe they’ve closed the loophole and it doesn’t happen anymore. Now, it’s a matter of trial and error with someone’s username and password“.

MM: And Jennifer Lawrence wouldn’t have ever known?

CB: “This hacker wouldn’t have gone in yesterday and pulled the photos, it’s likely he’s had them for sometime”.

MM: So, back to you. What does this mean for you if you have ever taken nude photos of yourself?

CB: “If you’re taking nude photos of yourself and you’ve synced them, get rid of them. You need to delete them off the iCloud and hope to hell no one has accessed them between now and then”.

That should keep you in the clear you but perhaps not completely. “There’s a handy delete, undelete icon” for the smart devices, says Brown. “It can show you, in about a minute, how to undelete a file”. Not good if you’re trying to keep a few pics under wraps.

Brown knows most things about the technology world. He knows where it’s at and where its going and his advice is, “don’t take compromising photos. Don’t ever do it. If you ever take a photo in a digital format it can spread faster than a virus. Instantly. And by the time you realise, it’s too late.”

But if you insist on doing it and you want to keep the photos, “get them off the internet, use a drive with encryption software. It’s the only way to keep your photos safe and unseen because it’s unreadable unless you have the password”.

READ MORE: News: Naked pictures of Jennifer Lawrence allegedly leaked online.

Have you ever been caught out with compromising pics on your phone?