Dutch Police have arrested three men, seized data from two others and shut down an infamous 'revenge porn' site following a year long cyber-crime investigation.
Police announced on Thursday that they discovered that hundreds of women, including Australians, were targeted by hackers on the Anon-IB website when they seized the server.
The investigation began in March last year after a woman discovered her private images were posted online and reported it to Dutch police.
The forum is now shut down and police are continuing their investigation.
Dutch Police have shut down the Anon-IB website and are continuing its investigation
Dutch Police said the site featured nude pictures and videos of girls and young women that had been stolen by hackers (stock image)
Three men from the Netherlands, aged 35, 28, and 31 have been arrested are charged with computer intrusion and spreading nude photos.
Police also confiscated data from two other suspects, aged 19 and 26, linked to the forum but are yet to be arrested.
'With the seizure of a server, the police have taken a forum for hackers offline,' Dutch Police posted on its official Facebook page Politie Nederland.
RELATED ARTICLES
Share this article
Share'The visitors were particularly interested in nude pictures and videos of girls and young women, which they stole from the clouds of their victims and shared with each other in other, more hidden places on the internet. If your data is found in a police investigation, the police will contact you.'
Anon-IB hosted an infamous image board called AussieSl**s, which was dedicated to posting images of Australian women without their consent, the ABC reports.
Among the Australian victims was Heather Winter, who had photos stolen from her Facebook page and used on the site.
Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said many sites featuring image-based abuse of Australian women were based overseas (stock image)
Anon-IB hosted an infamous image board called AussieSl**s, which was dedicated to posting images of Australian women without their consent
'To think that sharing a photo that was going to a singular person, and eventually it's gone to the internet and it's gone to millions of people and god knows what they're doing — it's unnerving,' Ms Winter told the ABC.
'It was a huge sense of relief to hear that it had been taken down, you did feel like justice has been served.'
Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said that Anon-IB had hosted child pornography in many instances.
She added that sites featuring image-based abuse of Australian women were based overseas, which made it hard to get taken down.
'It's a bit of a game of whack-a-mole … you can take a site down in one country and it can pop up somewhere else, and with the use of VPNs and other technologies this can be challenging,' she told the ABC.
'But I don't think it should stop our resolve to go after these sites that are harming our citizens, specifically our young girls.'
Victims have taken to social media to commend Dutch Police on the breakthrough (stock image)
Dutch police have arrested three men and seized data from two others in the Netherlands
Meanwhile, victims have taken to social media to commend Dutch Police on the breakthrough.
'Thank you to the @Politie #DutchPoliceCyberCrimeUnit for taking down anonib,' one woman tweeted.
'It doesn't change what happened to me, but I'll sleep better at night. Thank you for unknowingly saving my life.'
Anon-IB hosted an infamous image board called AussieSl**s, which was dedicated to posting images of Australian women without their consent
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWKCd4OPcG5wZ3mjs6K5zq6qZqqVq7Kvs8Rmp6iqnmLEpq7SoqueZZakv7a5jJyYpaSVmXqCwdKsoJ6LnGLAbrLIp5ilpKliwKnB02abqK%2BeY7W1ucs%3D