Katie Gatto wrote an article in
Tomsguide.com
In 2011, naked photos of Hollywood starlet
Scarlett Johansson made their way onto the Web. The photos, which Johansson had
taken herself with her smartphone, were posted on a variety of different sites,
and then went viral.
Such things happened to a whole host of celebrities, including
Christina Aguilera, Ali Larter, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Alba, Demi Lovato, Selena
Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens. No doubt, they had something to worry about — but as
it turns out, so do normal people.
t's a process called
"sextortion," and it's exactly what it sounds like: sexual extortion.
It all begins when someone gets their hands on a racy photo of you. It could be
that your phone got stolen, or that an ex-boyfriend decided sharing those nude
pictures was a fun way to get over you, or that someone broke into your home
computer and programmed thewebcam to take photos of you without your
knowledge.
"I just could not believe that this was actually happening
to me," said M, a sextortion victim who wished not to be identified by his
full name, "I thought it was a prank, but it wasn't."
It seems like a nightmare scenario, but it happens to real
people. Luis Mijangos of Santa Ana, Calif., was sentenced to six years in
prison in 2011 for hacking into the computers of more than 100 women and
teenage girls. If he found nude photos, Mijangos would contact the women and
threaten to post the images online unless they provided more naked photos.
The only way to stop webcam
hacking is to cover your webcam. Check
out C-SLIDE which manufactures webcam covers for all devices (computers,
tablets, ipads, iphones, smart phones, smart tv’s, and more).
