The Hackers Behind The Naked Celebrity iCloud Photo Leak Have Regrouped, And They Are Unhappy

The release of hundreds of naked photos of celebrities was a crisis for Apple. It was also a disaster for the iCloud hackers on the porn forum "AnonIB." For years they had used the venue to openly trade hacking tips and software, stolen photographs of women, and even advertise their hacking services.

As news emerged of the iCloud hack, the anonymous staff of AnonIB took the site offline. They were presumably aware that "OriginalGuy," the source of the photos, began to release the images there. The message displayed on the site claimed that it was merely offline for "scheduled maintenance." However, the fact that the site was offline for two weeks, rather than the usual few hours reserved for maintenance, signaled that the site's founders were instead concerned over the wave of attention that AnonIB had come under.

Now, AnonIB is back online, and iCloud hackers are starting to come to terms with the release of photos that changed their "hobby" forever.

The "Obtained Photos" section of the site, known as /stol (short for "stolen photos") has been completely deleted following the iCloud hack. As Business Insider reported last month, it had previously served as an advertising service where hackers could share their expertise, and as a place for iCloud hackers to pool their resources in search of nude photographs:

We don't know for sure why AnonIB chose to delete the infamous section of the site that played host to a legion of iCloud hackers, but it's likely due to the threat of police action, or, absurdly, concerns over the privacy of its users. Email addresses have been posted in public for years, and journalists had begun to contact iCloud hackers wishing to speak about the leaked photos.

iCloud hackers returning to the forum have been able to discuss the celebrity photo leak for the first time after the mainstream press reported on the story. And they're not happy.

Forum posts frequently insult "OriginalGuy," the user who leaked photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and others. One commenter refers to him as "nobody leecher scum."

Elsewhere on AnonIB, one user complains that only a selection of the stolen celebrity photos were published.

While users are still posting on the public forum, the real discussion about hacking techniques has moved to a collection of private chatrooms. But the hackers aren't stopping their hobby. While they've been spooked by the publicity caused by the celebrity photo leak, and Apple has made their lives slightly tougher, iCloud hackers are still hard at work.