New Delhi: Posting photos and checking into social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook has now provided cyber criminals a way for virtual extortion. The wealthy people are being targeted and there are some cases that have now been revealed.
Recently, daughter of a well-known MNC CEO posted her vacation details on Facebook after which the cyber criminals hacked the security video of the hotel she was staying in and recovered footage of some of her intimate moments. Police failed to act on this issue.
"They told the CEO to pay up $250,000 or they would post the footage online," a cyber security expert who took up the case told a leading daily. The ransom ultimately had to be paid as the network was too big to track down.
A cyber security analyst once said that holiday pictures posted on a CEO's Facebook account was being morphed.
Also last year, a married Indian VIP was told that video footage of him being physically intimate with a foreign woman would be circulated to his Facebook friends.
There are many such cases and Sivarama Krishnan, leader of Cyber Crime, PricewaterhouseCoopers, says there have been at least 12 cases of digital ransom last year, where private information, including location, or pictures, have been collected from social media accounts of CEOs or their family members.
Many just pay the money so that the case stays off the radar. But, there are several cases in which the social media platforms have cooperated with experts in tracking down the network and got a few criminals arrested.
A major reason for these cyber crime cases is the fact that people are sharing more online.
