Revenge porn is a booming business, especially for hacked webcams filming the ongoings of unaware victims. Can anything be done to protect you from spying cameras?

I was flipping through channels the other day and came across the movie The Den. I’d seen the movie about hacked webcams before, but I enjoy a good thriller, so I stayed put and watched it again. Halfway through it I started to really think about just how dangerous our connected world is.

Spoiler alert!

If you haven’t watched it, here’s a quick run down. A woman named Elizabeth is studying human behavior in relation to social media. She conducts her study by chatting with as many people online as she can, while noting how people react to strangers. Elizabeth used a fictional site called The Den which allowed her to chat with random people. But one fateful chat with a glitchy camera resulted in a spyware download, unknowingly turning her computer over to hackers. The attack gave hackers control of her laptop, able to send messages on Elizabeth’s behalf and turning on her webcam. In the end, she herself gets murdered, where it was revealed that she’d been hacked as part of a twisted plot to sell her recorded murder to online viewers. 

As real as it gets

Though the movie may sound absurd, the fact is such hacks do happen in real life. Maybe not the murdering-for-money bit, but hackers can easily take control of your computer, turn on your webcam and broadcast you in all your naked glory without your knowledge.

What’s worse, there’s even malware designed specifically for this reason. Knowledge of such hacks is enough reason for anyone to start taping over their webcam to prevent being spied on. The act of hacking webcams is one of many ways in which someone can become a victim of revenge porn. What used to be an act done by a hateful ex who posted intimate photos of their partner to get back at them, has evolved into hackers posting nudes of random people and others. And just like in the movie The Den, people are paying to see naked photos or videos of people who are unaware that they are being surveilled.

Money is in porn

Revenge porn sites seems to be a lucrative business as they can charge for access the nudes. Another revenue stream is charging revenge porn victims a hefty sum to have their photos and videos removed.

While revenge porn has proven a difficult phenomenon to legally regulate, running such sites can land you in jail. Kevin Bollaert, creator and moderator of ugotposted.com, was sentenced to 18 years in state prison, and had to pay $10,000 in damages to his victims. Bollaert’s case marks the first ruling of its kind, and serves as a warning to those looking to cash in on revenge porn.

The world is dangerous enough and with more devices connecting to the Internet and being vulnerable to attacks, one can only hope that there’s a product out there to protect you.

Don’t be a victim of revenge porn

A smart device recently surpassed its funding goal on Indiegogo, Inc. the day it was launched. Called CUJO, the device looks like a smart home hub but what it does will make you understand why it was so quickly funded.

CUJO

CUJO functions like a smart home hub, but it’s all about security and privacy. The little device protects all the devices – security cameras, baby monitors, smartphones, tablets, alarm systems, wearable devices, thermostats, game consoles, laptops, smart door locks, smart TVs, desktops – that connect to your home network from malware, hackers, and viruses. It monitors all your connected devices and detects when there is an attempt to access any of them and blocks these attacks before they can do any damage. Like a smart home hub, you can use a mobile app to monitor all your connected devices and get alerts when threats are blocked. Though this device may sound like the answer to all our security problems, CUJO won’t be available until March 2016 for early backers.

Nymi

Another device you can look into to help you secure your connected life is the Nymi band, a wearable device that uses a person’s electrocardiogram or their heart’s electrical activity to authenticate them and be used to, for example, unlock their computer. At Dreamforce 2015, Nymi CEO Karl Martin announced that it has added two-factor authentication which means that aside from verifying the wearer’s heartbeat and using it to unlock connected things, the smart band also generates a unique one-time code. When the feature is activated, a user’s computer will not be unlocked with just the user’s heartbeat, it will need the smartband to generate the unique code to complete the unlocking process. The best part is, even when the two-factor feature is turned on, the wearer does nothing, the Nymi band does everything.

GateKeeper

Revenge porn is not all about hackers getting into your files. Sometimes, people close to you may be the ones who will put you in a vulnerable position. To prevent this from happening, you can use a device like GateKeeper (Untethered Labs, LLC) which automatically locks your computer when you walk away from it. GateKeeper has two parts, the GK-Chain and the USB Lock. The USB Lock connects to your computer and via Bluetooth 4.0 it communicates with the GK-Chain. It has a range of 0-100 feet so you can set it to automatically unlock your PC as you approach it, when you’re in range, or just when you sit down in front of your computer to ensure that no prying eyes will be able to access your computer. With the use of a mobile app, you can use it to locate the GK-Chain which can be used as a keychain, or be placed on items that your frequently use or misplaced.

More tips

Investing in security devices is one thing but people should also do their part to prevent this grim scenario from turning into your reality. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) offers some tips on how one can survive and avoid revenge porn sites. At the top of the list is to not take racy photos or videos even if you’re with someone you love and trust because digital files can easily be stolen or hacked and spread for the rest of the world to see. Read more about its tips here.

photo credit: Lander Otaola via photopin (license)