We haven’t had much Tom Hardy news lately. I just figured he was working quietly and hopefully not acting like a douchebag. But the lack of Hardy news is also a concerted effort for Tom. In a new interview, Tom details the lengths he goes through to avoid being hacked in various ways. He’s constantly going through burner phones and he has a Hillary Clinton-esque setup for his email. Huh.
Tom Hardy frequently “bins and burns” his phones in a bid to maintain his privacy. The 38-year-old actor – who has son Louis, seven, from a past relationship and a seven-month-old child with wife Charlotte Riley – is so paranoid about being hacked, he regularly splashes out on cheap pre-paid handsets which he then throws away. And Tom also uses private offline servers to safeguard his personal information from prospective hackers.
He told the Evening Standard newspaper: “We get hacked all the time. People go on to messengers and try to set up accounts with profiles. Or try to get into the phone itself, or they get hold of the number and they start fishing about, and my family as well, anyone I’m related to. You just have to bin and burn the phone and start again, we have to go through burners. We’re burning numbers left, right and centre. I’ll burn numbers and then I’ll have private offline servers for my email accounts. It’s quite painful when you think about, we’re quite normal people in that aspect.”
Even the ‘Legend’ star’s family have been targeted by hackers. He said: “My mum and dad don’t need to have their photos of stuff gone through or any of their private messages just because people want to find or piece together something maybe prurient or salacious, and even worse take money from people or move things around.”
The Peaky Blinders star thinks being a target for hackers is “pretty standard” for celebrities and is concerned his “location is easily accessible by a third party” through some apps. He also refuses to use iCloud after a number of high-profile stars had their accounts hacked and personal images leaked in 2014. He said: “I don’t touch iCloud, I’ve been advised not to by security specialists and analysts. I’m not knocking it but I was advised to avoid that and keep my stuff in a certain place, it’s actually a really negative aspect of doing my job.”
I absolutely know that this is the wrong instinct, but my first thought was “Damn, what’s he got to hide? Squirrelly much?” So wrong, I know! Everyone has a right to privacy, and if Tom is going through these lengths, I have to assume that he probably has had some online security issues and that sh-t is no joke. I think it’s far more likely that Hardy is being hacked by people in press, as it was well-documented throughout the hack-gate coverage in Britain that the UK tabloids will literally do anything to get access to celebrity phones. But who knows? Maybe Tom also faces hacking issues beyond the media though, you never know.
Here are some photos of Tom with Prince Harry and Prince William last weekend at the princes’ polo game.
Photos courtesy of WENN, PCN, Getty.
Is there anything left for him to hide? Didn’t he already put everything on myspace 🙂
This made my day! Thanks D.
Many years ago; he learned from that….
First off, Prince Harry and that guy on the end… I’d hack their systems ALL DAY.
But, I’ve never heard of other celebrities going to this length. Are they not talking about it? Or is he overly paranoid?
That’s what I’m wondering. And if he knows about it why are the authorities not involved? And how does he know that he got hacked? What exactly did these hackers get from his phone? This sounds paranoid to me. On a totally superficial note though, I like his new look.
Are you not aware of the U.K. phone hacking scandal? Not to mention the dozens of U.S. celebrities (and politicians, cough) that have had their personal info hacked and leaked. Big, big money in acquiring that kind of info/intel. He doesn’t sound paranoid to me, he sounds prepared.
Yes I am aware of that. And I am aware of how hackers work and what he’s saying doesn’t sound like being prepared against threats, it sounds paranoid and boarder line nonsensical.
So what’s a non-paranoid, sensical approach for a high profile celebrity to safeguard their privacy?
Other celebrities do it- there are services designed to help them set things up in the most safe way. Businesses and business people also do it. It is common for anyone who wants privacy.
And, I doesn’t have to be anything salacious. He could be talking about an upcoming film project that would inadvertently leak plots, release dates or projected co stars. He could text his wife saying where he will be in an hour, and turn up to a lot of waiting paparazzi.
yeah, who’s the guy on the end in the blue shirt? he’s adorable.
and is the woman pictured Charlotte Riley? she’s got a lovely smile.
Yeah and he calls her ‘Charlie-monkey’ <33
He stated he is worried people would have access to his children, and to scripts or projects that are being developed either by him or a third party/studio. He holds himself responsible if scripts/art/etc get stolen or leaked while in his posession, especially if the material is for his eyes only.
A friend of a friend has been sexting w/ Hardy for over a year. Might be more than scripts he’s worried about….
Then your friend should send him a Thank You text because his precautions will most likely keep her name out of the press…
Instead of throwing them out, why not give them to organizations that give phones to those who need them and can’t afford them. It’s not like every phone he has has gotten hacked. Such a waste. If nothing else, recycle them and keep them out of landfills.
I’m not a celebrity (obviously), I am uninteresting and don’t have much to hide. My PayPal, email, bank account, etc., has been hacked enough, even with ridiculous passwords and security measures, that I now use a burner phone, email, and offline server. Now that our cell phones can be searched without a warrant, and our internet privacy is constantly dwindling…well, we best all be careful how we conduct ourselves.
My Netflix account gets hacked all the time and Netflix keeps doing NOTHING about it. One day one of these people will lift my CC info instead of simply watching House of Cards.
Ugh. Back when I used Microsoft in the early days of man (lol), my Outlook was hacked and when I contacted them about it, they told me I was unable to change any of my security info for 30 days as a “precautionary measure to protect my account”. I was like, um, but…I’m trying to protect my account?
Netflix keeps telling me to change my email and password. I’ve run out of passwords LOL
My 10-year-old son’s SCHOOL email (yes, they require school accounts here) was hacked which led to cyber stalking which led to our entire family’s emails, online accounts, bank accounts, phones, icloud, pretty much our whole lives being exposed, hacked, drained, and tracked. Homeland Security and ICE became involved, but not to work with us personally. Only to gather evidence and intel so they could try to locate the source and prosecute, especially because there was evidence the hackers were trying to contact my son for sex.
Agents came to my house, did their thing (it was a long day), and advised we could no longer use any of our previous phones, phone numbers, online handles or usernames, accounts ever again. They gave me a card and said I could call if I wanted updates on the investigation, and that was it. When I asked what I was supposed to do to stop this from happening again, they told me to do exactly what Hardy is doing or to pretty much expect it to happen again. The agents don’t hang around to get you back on your feet and check in with you unless further crimes are perpetrated. It’s not their job. They were very nice and extremely thorough. But it wasn’t their job to set up my tech privacy and safety protocol. Hardy is taking his career and family privacy – which equals safety – into his hands. Good on him. This isn’t about some sexting or dick pics he’d rather not get leaked. You people saying that have obviously never had your lives changed by a hack. Yet.
He’s 100% in the right, however maddening it seems. I’d be pretty livid if people were constantly trying to break into my car or my house. This is just more attempted theft. Just to make it clear, the people hacking celebrities are criminals, pure and simple. Criminals. They should all do serious jail time, “journalists” or not.
I refuse to use any type of cloud storage. I get it tom!
Between the UK hackgate, the celebrity iCloud hack, and the Sony hack, it’s pretty clear to me at least that while we are all targets for hacking, celebrity data have a premium bounty on them. I don’t blame him for being so careful to safeguard his privacy.
NO. NO. NO.
The Bloke pictured sucking up with Normal Bill? My crush is dead. Deaded. Murderised to death. Shame because he was STELLAR on Peaky Blinders last night. Just as well I have Alien Beauty to dry my tears.
(If I were a British celebrity, I would use burners too. Anyone who thinks hacking is dead is a fool).
“You’ve been f*****g about with the Russians, you silly boy.”
He always sucks up with Harry and William when they show up to Audi sponsored polo tournaments. Hardy is an Audi Fan Boy.
Nothing kills my ladyboner more quickly than a BRF sucker-up. Gah!
He was genius last night, wasn’t he? And poor Arthur. Everybody’s humiliation patsy. I think they probably gave him the best line of the night though: “There you go, ladies, made in f*cking Birmingham.”
Ha, and John’s burst of laughter! Paul Anderson is the best this series.
I just want Tatiana to disappear.
The Bowie thing was inspired.
My money’s on Tatiana to kill Paddy Considine before Polly’s boy gets there and Polly goes postal. Or is that too fanciful? I thought Alien Beauty was insanely good last week, but this week belonged to The Bloke.
When it’s all over next week, I’m going to watch it all a second time!
Tom Hardy as Alfie; best thing EVER!
Wow how tall is he? Like 5’6? Or are the other guys just really tall?
I think my first instinct would be ‘paranoid much?’ But then, if someone wanted access to every text argument I’ve had with my husband, or any gossip I’ve texted my girlfriends, or how much money I spent at Target (the biggest scandal!), or whatever. If someone just siphoned all the little tidbits or shitty or scandalous things you do to paint a picture of you in the media, to make money, yeah I would be paranoid as hell. I’d be gossiping in morse code!
Is that what your calling your wife not finding out about your side pieces….hacking.
Okay, bloke.
No, that’s what assistants’ phones are for!
I think he’s been in one too many movies…
It’s never too much darling…
I so would.
This dude sounds really paranoid.
Like get a blackberry and call it a day boo.
I’m actually quite surprised at the comments here, and how most of us don’t see this as a big deal. Maybe it’s because I follow the kpop industry as well, but I do think that hacking celebrities’ stuff is more common than they let on. Every couple months or so with kpop you get the celebrities saying stuff on social media like ‘please stop hacking my Instagram’ or ‘stop calling my hand phone, I won’t answer’. Granted, the kpop industry has a way of breeding batshit insane fans, but if even 1 person did that to me I would totally go all burner-phone lifestyle too.
Wow Harry, damn son.
He is lookin GOOD in those riding pants.