Last month, I reported on the cyber trolling woes of Saturday Night Live and Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones. Now, those woes worsen. Leslie Jones is cyber trolled again.
This time it’s far more serious. Hackers broke into her website and leaked nude photos of her. They hacked into her Tumblr account and took the photos from her iCloud. It didn’t stop there. They posted her drivers license, passport, phone number, and other personal information of Jones’. They put images of Harambe, the dead gorilla, posing with her and other celebrities. Please believe such images were photo-shopped. Since late July, Jones has been the victim of vicious cyber racist and sexist attacks. ?Jones’ website, JustLeslie.com, is now defunct. Jones just got back from Rio as a guest social media commentator for the Olympics. ?So far, neither Jones nor her people have responded to the latest round of cyber attacks and hack. Many speak out on her behalf. Ghostbusters director Paul Feig tweeted, “What’s happening to is an outrage.” Even Milo Yiannopulous, who was banned from Twitter for allegedly harassing Leslie Jones, now sympathies with her. He expressed distress and wishes her the best during this upsetting time.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time celebrity nude photos were released without their knowledge or approval. In 2014, nearly 500 celebrity photos, most of them nude, were hacked and leaked to the public. Only one person was arrested for this crime. Their lies part of the problem. Few people are being caught and prosecuted for this. If people feel they can get away with it, they’re going to keep doing it. We have to strengthen our laws and efforts to catch these crooks. This should be the happiest year in Leslie Jones’ life. She has a spot on the historic Saturday Night Live. She’s a star of a major motion picture. She landed a gig covering the Olympics. She’s one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood today. She should be living the American dream. But because of these trolls, bullies and hackers, Leslie Jones’ American dream has become an American nightmare. The nightmare seems to have no end in sight. Is this our new normalcy (I hope not!)?
Twitter suspended 235,000 accounts believed to promote terrorism and/or extremist causes. This accounts were suspended over a six month period. Twitter began their anti-terrorism campaign in summer 2015. Since then, over 360,000 Twitter accounts were suspended. A Twitter spokesperson issued this statement: “We…remain committed to eliminating the promotion of violence or terrorism on our platform.” Twitter has a strict anti-terrorism policy and it’s enforced with authority. Suspensions have gone up 80% since last year. That’s because Twitter has cracked down over such extreme speech and promotion of violence and terror. As Twitter grows it’s teams of reporting extreme tweets, reports are dealt with quicker. They also work with other social media businesses and activist groups to fight online terrorism and extremism. This is a tremendous step in fighting this good step. But some activists say more needs to be done.
Some activists worry online terrorists can get to potential victims in other ways. For instance, they could publish personal information, like emails, phone numbers, addresses, credit/debit card numbers, and anything they wish to. They could use this information to fleece people’s finances, or worse, hunt people down and do the unthinkable. Some wonder how this could interfere with free speech. I’m a huge advocate for free speech and First Amendment rights. Twitter does a good job of keeping people safe without compromising people’s freedoms. I’m a advocate for personal responsibility. If thugs use Twitter to promote murder, bombings, or destruction, then they don’t need to be on Twitter. If someone makes such threats in the real world, they can be arrested and prosecuted for those threats. Same thing on social media. I love Jimmy Kimmel’s Mean Tweet segments. I’m not about political correctness or sensitivity at all. But look at all the terrorist attacks we’ve had in July 2016 and August 2016 alone. Why give these thugs a free platform? Do you think Twitter’s anti-terrorism rules compromise free speech?
Pokemon Go can be a fun game for adults and kids alike. It can also be a tool for criminals and predators. The State of New York doesn’t want that tool to happen. New York bans Pokemon from registered sex offenders.
This is under the jurisdiction of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. This new law forbids registered sex offenders on parole from playing any online game, especially Pokemon Go. Governor Cuomo wrote Niantic, Pokemon Go’s developers. He called on Niantic to prevent offenders from signing up. NY State Senators Jeffrey Klein and Diane Savino came up with this law. They toured neighborhoods in which registered sex offenders lived. They discovered many Pokemon Go stops. Senators Klein and Savino worry registered sex offenders can use the ‘lure’ part of the game to entice children and underage teens. So, Senators Klein and Savino created a bill banning registered sex offenders from Pokemon Go, and all online games. This new law has it’s controversies. Cuomo insists this law will only affect the 3,000 registered sex offenders on parole. Some critics argue the law won’t be effective. Some argue this could be the start to online gaming censorship.
It do see Cuomo, Klein and Savino’s concern. In Missouri, robbers used the Pokemon Go lure app. But it wasn’t to get Pokemon points. They used the lure app to jump innocent people and rob them of their possessions. If robbers can do it, what’s to stop child predators from this kind of evil? Fortunately, I haven’t heard of any registered sex offender stooping this low. But if this law keeps children safe, then pass it and above all, enforce it! Just keep the law’s focus where it needs to be. This is not an excuse to trample on the rights of innocent New York citizens. Do you think this law is the right course of action?
Vladimir Putin and the Russian government are the main suspects. ?Then you have WikiLeaks hacking and releasing information. And they promise to do more of it. More states use electronic voting. There’s even talk of voting online. This just adds to the risk of a major political cyber attack on Election Day. Other concerns include deleting votes and/or voter records and hijacking candidates’ website. Hackers could cyberbully candidates, even threaten death to their families. Hackers could use social media to intimidate voters, threatening them if they dared go to the polls. Voting machines can be hacked and tampered with. Don’t think this can happen? In Latin America, it already is. Check out this chilling article from an admitted political hacker. Andres Sepulveda was somewhat of a hacking hit man. He’d be paid over $12,000 a month to hack campaigns. It didn’t matter who it was, just as long as Sepulveda got paid.
I am not writing this to endorse any candidate. But I write this as a grave warning. Intimidation of voters has been done before, even in America. During the Jim Crow era, open intimidation kept many African-Americans from the polls. You don’t think trolls would do the same thing today through a computer or smartphone? Andres Sepulveda got $12,500 a month hacking elections. There are many unemployed tech workers who will do it for even less. Some would even hack an election for free, so long as it supported their cause. And consider how volatile this election already is. And why are we letting foreign governments rig an election? If they can rig our elections, there’s no telling how far they would go. What’s to stop them from saying, “Let’s hack their entire computer networks, their electricity, their military, and knock them back to the early 1800s with an EMP?” And if people think elections are this rigged, then what’s the point of even voting at all? Do you see the potential downfall we’re facing? What can be done to address political hacking? Or am I just being paranoid?
The Democrat National Convention is over now. But the fallout continues. The FBI investigates a Democrat Party committee being hacked.
The alleged victim was the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DNCC. The Russian government is the top suspect. Rumors have it Russia is hacking Democrat organizations. Rumors say they’re doing so to help Republican nominee Donald Trump get elected this November. The Kremlin vehemently denies this, claiming they had nothing to do with any cyber attack. Russian hackers are already suspected of hacking the convention. The investigation shows the motive wasn’t theft. The motivation was information gathering. It’s not even clear which data was exposed. But Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta expressed concern of foreign intelligence agency interfering in this US election. Kremlin spokesperson?Dmitry Peskov called the hacking speculations ‘silliness and bordering on stupidity’. Some Democrats are even blaming Donald Trump. Some accuse Trump of being behind the whole thing. They point out Trump’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia isn’t the only potential online threat. WikiLeaks exposed some condemning emails. These emails allegedly show the DNC’s blatant for Hilary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. The DNC is supposed to be neutral toward all Democrat candidates. In fact, DNC Chairman Debbie Wassserman Shultz had to resign because of email controversy. This was less than 24 hours before the convention began.
I’m not here to take political sides here. But this finger pointing is almost turning into paranoia.There’s one thing John Podesta is right about. No foreign government, corporation, entity, criminal gang, or foreign anything should be hacking into an American election. That’s the disturbing part. I understand the world is watching this presidential election. There is great global interest. But cyber attacking is no way to get involved. This is an American election. This election doesn’t belong to Russia, China, or any other nation. I don’t know if Russia is involved or not. It’s all speculation. But if they are, they need to back off. How would other countries like it if we hacked into their election process?
There’s no doubt about it. One of the biggest threats to computer technology is the computer virus. It can lead to ID theft, malware, even crimes like sextortion. There seems to be no end in sight. But one government agency vows to fight this epidemic.
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) brings top tech security experts to fight viruses. The event is called Cyber Grand Challenges (CGC). This event will test auto programs that look for computer vulnerabilities. Then, can they create and fix the vulnerability before the virus strikes? Can they do so without human help? A lot is riding on this. If this CGC is successful, this could mean no more cyber attacks on our devices. Yes, I know there are people and companies that fix viruses. We at Computer Geeks do so all the time. Yes, there are security software firms like Avast who prevent viruses and malware. But according to DARPA program manager Mike Walker, it can take over 300 days to find a security flaw. Hackers can do much damage in that time span. Operating systems run on millions of code lines. All it takes is one mistake in one code line to attack a computer or device. Even with these anti-virus programs and computer repair services, as great as they are, can’t totally protect you from flaws they don’t even know about.
I’m glad DARPA is on the case. We can’t go through a week without reading about a major hack attack. And it’s not just people in labs and basements either. Governments are hacking each other. I’ve read reports of Russian and/or Chinese hackers attacking our political ?conventions. We’re all in the war against computer viruses. All of us. So I’m not jealous at all of this CGC program. In fact, I hope it goes well. Wouldn’t it be great to live in a world without viruses, malware or the crime they bring?
