Over the weekend a string of celebrities became involved in what has been described as a large-scale security breach, as nude photographs of stars were leaked online.
An anonymous hacker claims to have obtained the private images, reportedly via iCloud, some of which were posted on website 4chan.
Today, the anonymous user took to the site to justify their actions, claiming that they are not a hacker, rather a 'collector'.
“I didn’t take the money and run. Shit got weird once I started posting samples," they wrote.
“AnoniB must have IP blocked me.. so i was spending all my time trying to find proxies, and then when I could get on this site was being hammered by everyone and I couldn’t even post. I got some private requests through email but none every came through," they continued.
“People wanted shit for free. Sure, I got $120 with my bitcoin address, but when you consider how much time was put into acquiring this stuff (i’m not the hacker, just a collector), and the money (I paid a lot via bitcoin as well to get certain sets when this stuff was being privately traded Friday/Saturday) I really didn’t get close to what I was hoping.
“Mainly because of the extra bitcoin spammers spamming their own address.. taking my original posts and passing them off as their own to try and get bitcoin.. but also because of the skeptics. I proved I had shit, but people wanted more and more for free. Well, fuck, you can’t get everything for free sometimes.
“Anyway, back to weird shit happening when I posted samples.. someone was tracking me, trying to find me.. ISP kept cutting out. Weird emails coming in.. Kinda freaked me out and I had to leave for a couple hours. I’m back, but it’s really fucking late right now. I’ll come back in the morning.”
Names on the “master list” include Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna and Mary E Winstead.
A spokesperson for 24-year-old Jennifer released the following statement in the aftermath of the hacking: “This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence".
The anonymous hacker claims to have collected hundreds of nude images of over a number of stars.
Hat-tip to our brothers over at JOE.ie.
