Any opinions on the hacker who got naked

[Geoff_M]

To me this is akin to saying to someone who's credit card number was stolen and used fraudulently "YOU KNOW credit card numbers are stolen. For years this has been going on and you are still using credit cards. You are stupid and immature and it's your own fault the data network was hacked"

Only in America, where we couple a puritanical view of the human body with a raging Madonna/***** complex, is this a raging scandal where these women are portrayed as idiots that should be embarrassed rather than as the crime victims the are.

I don't agree with either the "I have no sympathy" crowd nor the "It's like blaming someone for Target letting their credit card number get stolen" crowd.

Today I read this CNN.com analysis by Peggy Drexler that highlights my problem with the "Jennifer and Kate played no part in this" position:

Certainly, the surest way to avoid ever having your most private photos shared publicly is to not take them in the first place. This is the philosophy behind the most common advice given to teens, among whom the rates of "sexting" continue to rise. Trust no one. Share nothing. Even better: Take nothing.

While we're at it: Don't leave the house. After all, you could get mugged, or raped. You'd better not fly on a jet, either, what with all the terrorism and overworked pilots. Swim in the ocean? No way: sharks!

It's ridiculous logic.

And yet much of the reaction to the celebrity leak has fallen prey to such logic, questioning why these celebrities would take such risqué—and risky—photos in the first place. For this reason, taking nude photos is most definitely a right to fight for, if only because ceasing to do so is a form of victim blaming, and far more harmful than protective.

The blame for a crime lies not with the victim but with the criminal.

On one level Drexler is 100% correct in saying that the blame for the crime lays (lies?) with the criminals. But on another, if we follow her "ridiculous logic" example, she also implies it's misguided for us to advise our late-teens against making and sending such photos because they are all perfectly fine (a "right" even!)... any beef we should harbor should be limited to those that then later misappropriate such works of personal expression.

I'm sorry, but my advice (be it to my kid... or a young starlet) is "I wouldn't be doing stuff like that if I were you, because experience shows time and again, that stuff like that can really jump up and bit you in the butt in a big way down the road. On top of that, the chances of that happening increases proportionally when you've made a name for yourself later in life."

Let me re-frame your credit card analogy in a way that I think better fits here... I have a family member that used to not like to carry a wallet. It was a personal preference. So when they went out and needed a credit card, they'd just slip it loose in a pocket (pants, coat, etc.) and go. I thought that not keeping such valuables in a common place was a good way to invite problems... and it was. Cards were sometimes left in some pants pocket, or a coat, and later would not be found until after a period of days of looking around the house,under car seats, etc. for the card that they knew "was around here somewhere". It was a pain that periodically raised anxieties, and required a phone call for a new card, but my worst fear was never realized that one of our cards would fall unnoticed into the wrong hands. I was happy that after some time, the utility of using a wallet was embraced by the person.

Now if someone had found a card that had slipped loose out of a coat pocket, and then used it fraudulently, without a doubt only the criminal is guilty of any wrong doing... but I think I could have made a case that perhaps the card wouldn't have been lost in the first place if it weren't kept secured in the wallet.

 

[Mkrop]

Um....are people not understanding what happened here? This was not staged for publicity. These were photos that these people took on their phones, not photos that they 'put out there'. Many of the photos were taken from backup files on iCloud - for those of you with iPhones or iPads, these are the backups that your device automatically makes when you sleep the device and connect it to power. And it's not just photos that are in those backups.

Sooooo.....it's OK for hackers to get into a celebrity's phone backups, take their personal photos and information, and sell them all over the internet?

I dont think one person out there thinks this is ok. Some people though would like for people to take some personal responsibility

It's not ok that the hacker did what he did. What this person did is negligent and he needs to be sent to jail for this. If the system could find a way to ban hackers from computers for the rest of their lives, they should do it.


I've always told my girls "Do not write anything down that you don't want the world to read. Do not say anything that you don't want the world to hear, because someone will repeat it. Do not take any photos that you don't want your grandmother to see, and never ever put anything on the internet that you don't want saved for prosperity. Never assume anything is private."

No sister, but if it happened to my daughters I'd say they're just as stupid as these celebrities. Want naked photos of yourself? Fine, use a digital camera and view them from a flash drive or other external device. Don't save them to anyplace where they could be hacked or retrieved by others. If that's blaming the victim, so be it. No sympathy whatsoever. It's a far cry from blaming a rape victim on how she was dressed or behaved.

The smart so-called victims are ignoring this incident. No real harm. A handful who have expressed manufactured outrage are getting mercilessly eviscerated on social media.

I dont have a sister or daugthers but I give the advice to my sons all the time, do NOT put stuff like that on the Internet EVER. It is not private. It is the same thing as a drinking photo underage, you may think it is safe and you are secure but it isnt, and if someone wants to find it they can.

So I think these celebrities need to put their "big girl panties" back ON, and stop taking photos with devices that are not safe.

And I think it is wrong to be equating any of this to the crime of rape. It is NEVER the victim's fault no matter what they are wearing and they are true victims, they most likely could not have prevented what happened to them. And comparing this crime of hacking nude photos to rape in any sense is disrepectful to those true rape victims. This particular crime could have been prevented by simply NOT putting the photos online. I dont put my electronics on my front lawn and invite people to see them, dont put pictures you dont want to be hacked out there on the Internet.

And I am one of those rare Internet shopppers, and DH keeps pushing me to do more banking online and I tell him no all the time. I dont necessarily trust it all. Can I avoid it completely...no society has made it quite difficult to do, but society has not make it difficult to NOT put nude pictures of myself on my phone (only my fat rear end and fear of blinding people does that)

 

[Albort]

To me this is akin to saying to someone who's credit card number was stolen and used fraudulently "YOU KNOW credit card numbers are stolen. For years this has been going on and you are still using credit cards. You are stupid and immature and it's your own fault the data network was hacked"

it wasnt actually a data breach hack like the credit cards stolen...

its more of using your debit card @ Walmart with a pin of 0000. And the hacker tries it at walmart as well, but lets him try to figure out your pin code easily.

This leak is HUUUGE... i dont think it includes the 101 listed, but much much more. Its a pretty big but private network that has been doing this, this is the first time someone actually tried to profit out of it.

 

[JanaDee]

The accounts weren't hacked. They were logged into with usernames and passwords.

 

[Mkrop]

I don't agree with either the "I have no sympathy" crowd nor the "It's like blaming someone for Target letting their credit card number get stolen" crowd.

Today I read this CNN.com analysis by Peggy Drexler that highlights my problem with the "Jennifer and Kate played no part in this" position:
On one level Drexler is 100% correct in saying that the blame for the crime lays (lies?) with the criminals. But on another, if we follow her "ridiculous logic" example, she also implies it's misguided for us to advise our late-teens against making and sending such photos because they are all perfectly fine (a "right" even!)... any beef we should harbor should be limited to those that then later misappropriate such works of personal expression.

I'm sorry, but my advice (be it to my kid... or a young starlet) is "I wouldn't be doing stuff like that if I were you, because experience shows time and again, that stuff like that can really jump up and bit you in the butt in a big way down the road. On top of that, the chances of that happening increases proportionally when you've made a name for yourself later in life."

Let me re-frame your credit card analogy in a way that I think better fits here... I have a family member that used to not like to carry a wallet. It was a personal preference. So when they went out and needed a credit card, they'd just slip it loose in a pocket (pants, coat, etc.) and go. I thought that not keeping such valuables in a common place was a good way to invite problems... and it was. Cards were sometimes left in some pants pocket, or a coat, and later would not be found until after a period of days of looking around the house,under car seats, etc. for the card that they knew "was around here somewhere". It was a pain that periodically raised anxieties, and required a phone call for a new card, but my worst fear was never realized that one of our cards would fall unnoticed into the wrong hands. I was happy that after some time, the utility of using a wallet was embraced by the person.

Now if someone had found a card that had slipped loose out of a coat pocket, and then used it fraudulently, without a doubt only the criminal is guilty of any wrong doing... but I think I could have made a case that perhaps the card wouldn't have been lost in the first place if it weren't kept secured in the wallet.

Excellent argument. It is the theif's fault for using the credit card but the family member needs to take some PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for not securing it. Same with the subjects of these photos

And I totally agree, if I give my teenager the same advice about not putting nude photos out there than the same advice should be for everyone, celebrity or not. Peggy Drexler's argument is giving a free pass to teens to do what we tell them over and over NOT to do. I guess the boy that my son knows who sent a snapchat picture of his junk should not have been expelled from the private school. She screenshot it and dad saw it. I mean Peggy Drexeler's argument is that this was a private communication btw him and his GF. They were both seniors and over 18, so where is the harm. Yeah tell that to her dad.

 

[Colleen27]

On one level Drexler is 100% correct in saying that the blame for the crime lays (lies?) with the criminals. But on another, if we follow her "ridiculous logic" example, she also implies it's misguided for us to advise our late-teens against making and sending such photos because they are all perfectly fine (a "right" even!)... any beef we should harbor should be limited to those that then later misappropriate such works of personal expression.

That doesn't follow at all. These aren't photos that were shared with someone untrustworthy or just left lying around (like your lost credit card analogy) - in those cases I'd agree that the person who took the photos was partially to blame. But in this case the photos were taken privately and kept private, in a supposedly secure location, and someone broke into that secure location and stole them.

 

[Mkrop]

That doesn't follow at all. These aren't photos that were shared with someone untrustworthy or just left lying around (like your lost credit card analogy) - in those cases I'd agree that the person who took the photos was partially to blame. But in this case the photos were taken privately and kept private, in a supposedly secure location, and someone broke into that secure location and stole them.

I think that is the problem, why would anyone think that anything online is secure...that is the part that I dont get

 

[skylizard]

That doesn't follow at all. These aren't photos that were shared with someone untrustworthy or just left lying around (like your lost credit card analogy) - in those cases I'd agree that the person who took the photos was partially to blame. But in this case the photos were taken privately and kept private, in a supposedly secure location, and someone broke into that secure location and stole them.

Exactly. It's not like these pics had been emailed, texted, instagrammed, snap chatted, etc.. They were kept on their private computers and never shared. It's theft pure and simple. These celebrities have every right to keep pics of themselves on their own personal and private computers as do any one of us. It's not any different than if they had kept actual prints locked up in a safe deposit box and someone broke into that and stole them. I really don't understand how some people are blaming the celebrities.

 

[Colleen27]

Excellent argument. It is the theif's fault for using the credit card but the family member needs to take some PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for not securing it. Same with the subjects of these photos

Living life within limits designed to guard constantly against crime at every turn goes well beyond personal responsibility. Personal responsibility is not sharing the photos with untrustworthy people and storing them in a secure place, just as personal responsibility is keeping track of your credit card and not giving the number away to untrustworthy outlets. It isn't never taking racy pics or never using a credit card because of the risk of being targeted by criminals.

I think that is the problem, why would anyone think that anything online is secure...that is the part that I dont get

It is a common expectation in our culture, and a fundamental part of what online shopping, online banking, and cloud storage "sell" as their product. Without the belief that at least certain online activities are secure there could be no internet commerce or financial services at all.

 

[skylizard]

I think that is the problem, why would anyone think that anything online is secure...that is the part that I dont get

I do my taxes online via turbotax. They guarantee a secure and private site. If someone hacks in to turbotax and steals my info, is it my fault then? Why are we letting businesses off the hook and blaming the consumers?

 

[Geoff_M]

That doesn't follow at all. These aren't photos that were shared with someone untrustworthy or just left lying around (like your lost credit card analogy) - in those cases I'd agree that the person who took the photos was partially to blame. But in this case the photos were taken privately and kept private, in a supposedly secure location, and someone broke into that secure location and stole them.

Well, I think your beef would be with Ms. Drexler and not me, as she was the one that equated teen photo swapping with the events of last weekend and then made her argument.

 

[Geoff_M]

I do my taxes online via turbotax. They guarantee a secure and private site. If someone hacks in to turbotax and steals my info, is it my fault then? Why are we letting businesses off the hook and blaming the consumers?

At this point in time, it's far from certain from whose accounts they are taken from (maker vs. possible recipient) and the exact means with which they were taken. There's primarily theories that point to the use of "weak" passwords, which may or may not be true. There's suspicion that it may have been an Apple design flaw in a piece of software that allowed unlimited password tries that then allowed people to try and guess possible "easy" passwords. There's also a theory that this was not some singular massive collection gathered at once, but one that's been built up over time by a reclusive group of hackers yet unknown and only just "leaked" to the outside World.

It's far too soon to say who or what company may have messed up. But if I file my taxes with TubroTax and use "12345" as my password, is it automatically their fault if someone gets a hold of a copy of my tax return through my account with them???

 

[Geoff_M]

Living life within limits designed to guard constantly against crime at every turn goes well beyond personal responsibility. Personal responsibility is not sharing the photos with untrustworthy people and storing them in a secure place, just as personal responsibility is keeping track of your credit card and not giving the number away to untrustworthy outlets. It isn't never taking racy pics or never using a credit card because of the risk of being targeted by criminals.

However, in the real world, the biggest problem in the cases of people that suddenly find embarrassing photos of themselves floating around is people that once where thought of as "trustworthy" by the victims... but their status then shifts, or that it turns out they never were trustworthy to begin with.

 

[Shutterbug]

The accounts weren't hacked. They were logged into with usernames and passwords.

Yes I read that too. So they didn't break down the door, they simply had the keys to open it. Its still unauthorized access. Most usernames are your email address. If someone know that email address they have half the key already. The second half is the password. You'd be surprised how many people have a simple password. Either its their name or childs name, or something really easy to figure it out. A password shouldn't really be a "word" at all. It should be combo of letters small and caps, numbers and symbols. Yes that does make it harder to remember but its more secure. Also you should have a diff one for each account.

 

[Planogirl]

Supposedly this was a fail of the site's security too. It's easy to install a program that keeps guessing passwords but there should be a lockout at some point. I saw on a news program this morning that the lockout never occurred so the program could just keep guessing. If that isn't true I'd be interested to know more.

I personally don't really care either way. These people were violated and there is a criminal out there that needs to be punished.

 

[RadioNate]

Supposedly this was a fail of the site's security too. It's easy to install a program that keeps guessing passwords but there should be a lockout at some point. I saw on a news program this morning that the lockout never occurred so the program could just keep guessing. If that isn't true I'd be interested to know more. I personally don't really care either way. These people were violated and there is a criminal out there that needs to be punished.

And with Mckayla Mulroney being underaged the hacker is now looking at child porn charges on top of the hacking & theft crimes.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5755600

 

[Octoberbride03]

Yes I read that too. So they didn't break down the door, they simply had the keys to open it. Its still unauthorized access. Most usernames are your email address. If someone know that email address they have half the key already. The second half is the password. You'd be surprised how many people have a simple password. Either its their name or childs name, or something really easy to figure it out. A password shouldn't really be a "word" at all. It should be combo of letters small and caps, numbers and symbols. Yes that does make it harder to remember but its more secure. Also you should have a diff one for each account.

I read a cyber security thing in the paper not that long ago and the expert they interviewed said the ideal unhackable password would actually be a full sentence with as many words and numbers as you could put in it. But most sites don't allow that. In general the more characters a password has the better off you are. And I get annoyed when sites give their own rules and character limits.

 

[Albort]

I read a cyber security thing in the paper not that long ago and the expert they interviewed said the ideal unhackable password would actually be a full sentence with as many words and numbers as you could put in it. But most sites don't allow that. In general the more characters a password has the better off you are. And I get annoyed when sites give their own rules and character limits.

best way to lock an account is the 2 part verification login. Most banks force you to this. Most email account have that function available... including apple iClouds.

 

[Octoberbride03]

best way to lock an account is the 2 part verification login. Most banks force you to this. Most email account have that function available... including apple iClouds.

Haven't been on a site yet that doesn't have a 2 part system. I don't mind the 2 parts. I just mind when they limit the number or types of characters i can use in my password. I prefer a long password and have been on sites that insist on limiting me to 4-6 characters. Those sites annoy me. 1 of my banks used to do that and I had to store the password somewhere so I could remember it They have since upgraded the site and I now have a nice long password. I hardly use the site anymore though. Their mobile app has gotten so good, about the only thing i can't so with the app is deposit or withdrawl cash

 

[Mkrop]

And with Mckayla Mulroney being underaged the hacker is now looking at child porn charges on top of the hacking & theft crimes.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5755600

I hope the thief is charged with the child porn charge, but once again why does a teen take nude photos of herself with her phone. Once again, we tell teens OVER and OVER again, NOT to do this...WHY???? because something like this can happen