Sextortion: Did you know about this?

Extorting sex online, that can happen and it can happen easily. A lot of emphasis is put on words like “hacker” in the media, and these discussions generally do little to help people understand real threats. Instead they make computers seem like magic, and hackers seem like wizards wielding mystical nerd powers. How can people protect against something they don’t understand?

Sextortion is a new online threat, and one that has been made far easier with the advances in social media technology and prevalence. The issue is with privacy, confidentiality, and the integrity of personal data. People comfortable post all sorts of information online without any thought or worry. We make sure our firewalls are turned on, and that our antivirus software is updated, because that stops the “hackers,” right?

Wrong. In a story from the FBI Cyber Crimes Stories Blog from February of this year, the bureau detailed the new threat of sextortion, and despite the story there displaying some level of magic hackery, there is no requirement for such. A criminal does not need to exploit your computer to gain access to your phone number, your address, your interests, what you were doing last week, or any time of personal information, they just need you to post it on Facebook first.

And this is why it is important to have these discussions with children, educate them about the threats that exist online. Once something is on the internet, it is always on the internet.

FBI Article Reference: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/february/sextortion_021012/sextortion_021012