(USArmy paratroopers assigned to 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, finish boarding an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft loaded with a heavy-drop-rigged Humvee for a night jump onto Malemute Drop Zone, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.Flickr/The U.S. Army)
The US Army has opened an investigation into allegations that some active-duty soldiers may be involved in the online sharing of nude photos of their colleagues, Business Insider has learned.
The inquiry by the US Army's computer crime investigative unit comes one day after Business Insider reported that the scandal initially believed to be limited to the Marine Corps actually impacts every branch of service.
The report revealed a public message board where purported male service members from all military branches, including service academies, were allegedly cyber-stalking and sharing nude photos of their female colleagues.
Special agents from US Army's criminal investigation command "are currently assessing information and photographs on a civilian website that appear to include US Army personnel," Col. Patrick Seiber, a spokesman for the Army, told Business Insider. "They are currently assisting to determine if a criminal offense has occurred."
Seiber said there was no evidence at this point suggesting the site was related to the "Marines United" Facebook page. That page, which was reported on by journalist Thomas Brennan, had some 30,000 members that were found to be sharing nude photos of female Marines.
"Army CID is speaking with [the Naval Criminal Investigative Service] and US Air Force Office of Special Investigation to ensure all investigative efforts are fully coordinated," Seiber said.
According to the Business Insider report, members on a website called AnonIB often posted photos — seemingly stolen from female service members' Instagram accounts — before asking others if they had nude pictures of the victim.
(A screenshot from the website.Screenshot)
The site features a dedicated board for military personnel with dozens of threaded conversations among men, many of whom asked for "wins" — naked photographs — of specific female service members, often identifying the women by name or where they are stationed.
In a thread dedicated to the US Military Academy at West Point, some users who appeared to be Army cadets shared photos and graduation years of their female classmates.
"What about the basketball locker room pics, I know someone has those," one user said, apparently referring to photos taken surreptitiously in a women's locker room. "I always wondered whether those made it out of the academy computer system," another user responded.