Don’t be a Victim of Cyber Extortion

Crime, News

Cyber extortion is a crime involving a computer security breach that comes with a demand for money to stop the attack. Attacks can disable your computer or your company’s website, leading to lost money, stolen information, and loss and/or leaking of other important, personal, or classified information.

How Cyber Extortion Happens

Cyber extortionists capitalize on fear to get your personal information and money. Hackers may cause harm by posting a company’s classified information on the victim company’s own website, leading to numerous privacy lawsuits by customers.  Another common scam involves the use of pop-up message “warnings” accusing you of viewing and possessing illegal pornography, following up with a demand for money. Always ignore these warnings (police do not communicate via pop-ups) and reset your computer.

To back up their demands for money, hackers will often use viruses to block your computer’s functionality, thus holding your computer and it’s data virtually hostage until you pay up (at which point your computer will most definitely NOT be unlocked!). In the meantime, your computer is also scanned for documents and other information of interest — credit card numbers, personal photos, etc.

Your Cyber Liability

As a business or website owner, you could be held liable if your customers’ or site visitors’ personal data is breached. Your negligence in protecting information that is then breached can be cause for a lawsuit against you. This is where it becomes important to have insurance for such events, let alone proper security. It also helps tremendously to utilize the advice of a business attorney when setting up your business in the first place, as well as hiring one to help you when your customers’ data has been hacked.

How to Protect Yourself from Hacks

Keeping your computer safe means taking proper technical precautions: keep your firewall turned on, install and regularly update antivirus software and antispyware technology, and keep your operating system up to date. Obviously you should never download e-mail attachments carelessly; avoid opening attachments in forwarded emails (even from people you know), and never open attachments from people you don’t know. Also, turn off your computer when you are not using it to minimize accessibility.

According to some reports, most cyber extortion episodes go unreported because victims don’t want the publicity. This means extortionists go without being arrested, continuing to ruin people’s lives online. Unfortunately, extortion can involve very personal and perhaps embarrassing things that you may not want getting into the authorities hands — recorded webcam sessions, for instance.

Gain all possible information that you can on your case before taking information to the authorities. Gaining the IP address of an unknown extortionist is a lot of work for local authorities, so consider reporting an extortion incident to your state Attorney General’s Office or to the FBI.