Apple Inc. has often displayed uncanny timing with its well-orchestrated end-of-year iPhone releases. But the leak of racy celebrity photos in the past few days put the company in the unusual position of having to mend its image just days before a highly anticipated product launch next Tuesday.

Nude photos of Hollywood celebrities, including Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, were posted on Internet forums by unknown hackers, sparking condemnation from stars and their publicists and prompting a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In the wake of the breach, cybersecurity experts and mobile developers have pointed out inadequacies in Apple's cloud-services security and in the security of cloud services in general. Thousands of people have taken to Twitter to express their frustrations with the company.