Many hackers consider acquiring nude celeb pictures a "badge of honor"

[davidn3600]

In the world of cybercrime, some hackers steal credit cards for financial gain. Others deal in a different type of currency: private information like nude celebrity photos, used to buy the admiration of fellow hackers.

Alleged intimate photos of dozens of celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence and Mary Elizabeth Winstead appeared online this weekend. The thefts are the product of a small, malicious subset of the hacker community -- but it reflects the braggadocio of the hacker culture at large.

"Stolen data is incontrovertible proof of a certain level of skill for a hacker," Dave Aitel, the CEO of security company Immunity Inc., said in an interview Tuesday. "Hackers are braggarts. It's just a natural part of the culture: 'Look what I can do.'"

While it's not yet clear how the photos were obtained, Aitel said they could have been floating around a small subset of the hacker community for years, passed between a group like trading cards.

"It starts with someone saying 'Here's what I did, I got Kate Upton!' Someone else says, 'Oh yeah? Check out this photo of Jennifer Lawrence,'" Aitel said. "Stuff like this gets traded around. It's a way to assert your dominance as a hacker."

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/inside-psychology-celebrity-hackers-its-badge-honor-n193926

Nothing on the internet is safe and secure. Who knows how many underground rings there are of people private pictures being traded.

[Skittles]

1. someone will be along shortly to accuse you of victim blaming

Last edited Fri Sep 5, 2014, 01:15 AM - Edit history (2)

apparently you cannot be pro-security and anti-hacker *AND* think it's a bad idea to put naked pics where they can POSSIBLY BE HACKED

*EDITED* to change the word POST for SEMANTICS PURPOSES

[pnwmom]

2. Apparently you haven't figured out that these women did NOT "post" those photos.

They had them in their phones and did not post them online. Their phones automatically sent the photos to servers that were supposed to be extremely secure.

It is very likely that these young women, like most people, were vague on the tech details of their phones.

[Blue_Tires]

4. +1

[pnwmom]

3. Being a smart techie doesn't mean you are mature, ethical, or kind.A lot of them are immature jerks,

as they seem to prove everyday.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. White hats, black hats, and gray hats

The "white hat" techies tend to be the ones who focus on setting up security so that other hackers cannot access a system.
The "black hat" techies tend to be the ones who use their hacking skills for malicious purposes.
The "gray hat" techies tend to be the ones who don't have much of a moral compass-- they'll switch from being a "white hat" to being a "black hat" whenever it suits them.

[pnwmom]

12. Like people in general. But when very smart people wear black hats

they can cause an awful lot of trouble.

[Nye Bevan]

5. Well, they really shouldn't hack anything,

but having said that I would prefer that they hack into the nude selfie collections of multimillionaire celebrities than into my bank account or credit card information.

[Starry Messenger]

6. Women's pictures. Are men's pictures being posted by the hackers?

I'm asking to be sure.

[ManiacJoe]

7. Maybe by the female hackers.

However, the vast majority of the hackers are male.

[Starry Messenger]

8. Are there female hackers posting male pictures as a part of this security breach?

I don't know why male hackers couldn't post male pictures either, if the point is just to score cred points with the in-group. Or they could be gay.

Are pictures posted of women only?

[ManiacJoe]

9. You seem to be suggesting I have more knowledge than you

about who the hackers are in this particular case.

These type of hacks are not specific in their methods to specific targets, they work on every one. Thus, when picking a target, one would normally pick a target with something you/others desire to see instead of wasting your time on some random victim. Data from random victims would be easy to spoof and thus not useful for bragging about your hacking skills.

[Starry Messenger]

11. Well I was asking and you replied.

If you don't know, then why answer? lol

[Chan790]

13. A few. Not many. n/t

[davidn3600]

15. Hacker community is overwhelmingly male, and young

They go after women because they want to see women. Obviously some immaturity here. The overwhelming majority of hackers are young males. One of the distributors on 4chan of this recent leak is said to be 15 years old. So these guys have hormones raging. They are not going to go after nude guys. And any female hackers probably are not interested in such endeavors anyway. Women typically don't go ga-ga over nude male pics the way men do over nude women. These guys on Reddit were acting like seeing Jennifer Lawrence naked was like finding the Holy Grail.

[Starry Messenger]

16. "It's a way to assert your dominance as a hacker."

It's males humiliating women.

[AngryAmish]

17. Supposedly you can see Verlanders pee-pee.

[Gormy Cuss]

14. A real badge of honor would be paying fines or serving time for hacks like that.

Yes indeed, that would be a mark of badness.