Hackers have worked out that there is a fortune to be made in finding “adult” pictures of celebrities.

A ring of hackers has contacted gossip magazine TMZ to brag that it had turned over the accounts of Natalie Portman, skier Lindsey Vonn and gymnastic star Carl Patterson. The ring claims to have turned over Dianna Agron from "Glee" and an un-named 17 year old star who the magazine is not naming. The hackers have claimed to have snagged nude photos from many female stars in the past. These have included Vanessa Hudgens, Ali Larter, Busy Philipps, Scarlett Johansson, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Alba, Addison Timlin and Renee Olstead.

It is not clear if the hackers approached TMZ to see if it wanted to buy the snaps and the gossip magazine decided to run a story that the pictures existed instead. Certainly it got the chance to run a detailed photoshoot of the stars named. The rag contacted its deep throats in the FBI and was told that the Untouchables know all about the hacker ring and that it is targeting female stars.

In fact the FBI claims to even know who is running the mysterious hacker ring. But for some reason no one has been arrested yet.

More here.