{"id":35036,"date":"2019-05-02T22:30:56","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T14:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=35036"},"modified":"2019-05-02T22:31:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T14:31:01","slug":"what-is-sextortion-and-how-to-avoid-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2019\/05\/02\/what-is-sextortion-and-how-to-avoid-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What is sextortion and how to avoid it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Just as the name says, sextortion is a type of extortion where the perpetrator uses material of a sexual nature as ransom bait. In July 2018, the FBI recorded <\/strong>13,000 more sextortion complaints<\/strong><\/a> than it had in June. As a cybercrime, sextortion isn\u2019t limited to any part of the world or any specific target group.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is sextortion is\ndangerous? How does one avoid it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sensitive Nature of Sextortion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sextortion always\ninvolves material of a sexual nature, mainly pornographic content. However, the\nways criminals use this material to extort something from victims vary from one\ncase to another. They mostly want cash, though they can also use sensitive info\nto force victims to engage in sexual activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perpetrators contact\ntheir victims with a claim that they have hacked into their devices and\nobtained compromising material. If victims don\u2019t do as told within 48 hours of\nreceiving the message, the compromising material will be sent to every person\non their contact list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One in four victims<\/a> seeks\nprofessional medical or mental help in the aftermath. And therein lies the\nbiggest problem with sextortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike many similar\ncrimes, sextortion includes information that is not only very personal but also\ncompromising to the victim\u2019s social integrity. Many victims never report the\ncrime because they are too embarrassed. Most alarmingly, there has also been an\nincrease in sextortion-related suicides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 Different Methods of Sextortion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are four main\nmethods of sextortion \u2013 social media, hacked accounts, hacked webcams, and\nemail phishing schemes. Criminals who target their victims through social media\nand dating sites usually impersonate somebody else. This way they coax their\nvictims into sending them sexually explicit images and videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perpetrators can also\nhack into their victims\u2019 accounts or webcams to access compromising content and\nhold it to ransom. Smart home systems with multiple interconnected devices\noffer several entry points that cybercriminals can exploit. All WiFi-enabled\ncameras are vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the most common\nmethod of sextortion is usually a scam. Email phishing schemes<\/a> use\nsocial engineering as an intimidation technique to extort ransom money from\nvictims. Most of the time criminals don\u2019t actually have any compromising\ninformation on their victims. These are empty threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Stay Protected from Sextortion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In April 2016, IT\nsecurity company ESET released a warning about sextortion emails. And this is\nmore or less the only thing security teams and authorities can do. As long as\npeople use social media and cloud services to exchange or store sexually\nexplicit material, sextortion won\u2019t be uprooted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which means, we must\nlearn how to defend ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7        \nBe\nExtremely Careful If You\u2019re Dating Online<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t join an online\ndating community before you\u2019ve learned more about the threats and ways to avoid\nthem. There\u2019s a lot you can do to stay safe<\/a> while talking to or\nmeeting with strangers, but most of it falls down to your sound judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7        \nNever\nSend or Store Sexually Explicit Content<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It goes without saying\nthat you should never send compromising photos and videos to strangers you meet\nonline. But you should also avoid sending them to the people you know. Anyone\ncan hack into your social media account, texting app, or cloud storage, and\nsteal the material from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7        \nProtect\nYour Accounts with Strong Passwords<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In case you can\u2019t do\nwithout online flirting, at least make sure all your devices and accounts are\npassword-protected. Don\u2019t use just any password; instead, rely on password\ngenerators and managers to create and store strong passwords. Also, change them\nevery two months.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7        \nLearn\nto Recognize Email Phishing Schemes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email phishing schemes\nare usually easy to recognize. If you\u2019re getting a lot of emails from people\nyou don\u2019t know, filter them out by subject. Fraudulent emails typically tap\ninto your sense of urgency in the subject line. But even if you do open them,\ndon\u2019t click on any links or download any attachments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7        \nTurn\nOff Your Camera When You Don\u2019t Need It<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Facebook\u2019s CEO Mark\nZuckerberg tapes over his webcam, and so should you. Keep all your cameras\nturned off when you\u2019re not using them or simply cover the lens with a sticky\nnote or a piece of duct tape. That way, nobody will be able to monitor your\nactivities.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7        \nUse a\nVPN on Your Smart Devices<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You should use a VPN to\nencrypt all your connections and browse the internet safely, whether you have a\ncomplete smart home system or only a laptop and a smartphone (you can download\nthe app here: https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.nordvpn.android<\/a>).\nThis way nobody can track your activities online, see what web pages you are\nvisiting, or find your real location. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sextortion is not a very\nsophisticated cybercrime \u2013 it either relies on basic hacking methods or\nfraudulent emails. Both can be easily avoided. Using a combination of common\nsense and various cybersecurity techniques, every person can protect themselves\nfrom it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sextortion always involves material of a sexual nature, mainly pornographic content. However, the ways criminals use this material to extort something from victims vary from one case to another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":35037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,26],"tags":[1141,54,6712,96],"class_list":["post-35036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-opinions","tag-cybercriminals","tag-security","tag-sextortion","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}