I'm not the one clinging to a myth, Paradise.
It turns out the guy offering the pics had them up on 4chan for at least five days as well. But you're right. . . They were also on anon.ib. . . But the story is a lot more complex than that. Here is a blog written by a guy who dove into the cesspool of the guys who ARE behind this, including this guy. . . I just posted this on FR. Very interested reading. The people behind this had never intended it to go public. They've been finessing their way into celebrity accounts for years, which explains the strange mix of real and fake images, Apple and non-Apple photos, etc. They simply are not a dump from all iCloud accounts but some are.
According to some of the news accounts (which included screencaps before the public free release) they were attempting to sell them (conflicting accounts if they wanted bitcoin or paypal transactions).
And the theory is that it was a group effort not a single hacker.
Wired had an article (Wired is not permitted on FR by request of the publisher) about the software that was used to crunch the passwords. Seems it is intended for use by government/law enforcement agencies.
Ultimately some blame does fall on Apple for not flagging repeated failed efforts to brute force break a login password. I’ve got accounts that won’t let me easily log in even if I get the name and password correct but I am using a different ISP or computer.