Following the news that yet more nude photographs of celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, Amber Heard, Kim Kardashian West and Vanessa Hudgens have been leaked, several stars have spoken out in defence of their A-list peers.

The widespread leak, crudelydubbed 'The Fappening' by internet users, has seen several Hollywood A-listers become victim of a hacking scandal which saw a list featuring more than 100 women circulated on anonymous site 4chan and Reddit.

'The Help' actress Jessica Chastain spoke out about the leak, criticising those who have invaded the privacy of her fellow celebs.

"It's such a violation. To me they're not leaked photos, they're stolen photos," she told Sky News at the premiere of her new film 'Salomé'.

"Me appearing nude in a film is my choice and I find it so terrible that these actresses have been completely victimised.

"Anything sexual which does not have the woman saying 'yes'... is a big problem to me, so I hope that we find out who these people were and we can go after them as hard as we can."

'Harry Potter' star Emma Watson hasalso spoken out about the issue, tweeting: "Even worse than seeing women's privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy."

Her comments have led to internet threats, suggesting intimate images of the actress will be released by hackers in four days time.

Kim Kardashian, meanwhile, is among the latest victims of the hacking scandal. According to reports, the stolen images show the reality star posing in a bathroom and taking a selfie with a Blackberry.

A rep for Kardashian declined to comment, but she spoke about the scandal last month, telling BBC Radio 1 host Nick Grimshaw: "I think it's a wake-up call for people to make sure they have every privacy setting. It seems like there are a lot of people that love to spend their time hacking peoples' information and that's just a scary thing."

[related]After accusations that their technology was at fault, Apple has released a statement saying: "Our customers' privacy and security are of utmost importance to us.

"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."

The FBI, meanwhile, said it was "aware of the allegations concerning computer intrusions and the unlawful release of material involving high profile individuals, and is addressing the matter."