Tag Archive for: women

Sexually explicit deepfakes: women are more likely to be exploited

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Abuse of artificial intelligence tools leads to sexually explicit material of real people, according to a survey for a cyber firm. It collected data from over 2000 Brits and found that half were worried about becoming a victim of deepfake pornography, and near one in ten, 9 per cent, reported either being a victim of it, knowing a victim, or both.

The anti-virus and internet security product company ESET points to the rising problem of deepfake pornography, as recently highlighted by explicit deepfakes of the US singer Taylor Swift being viewed millions of times. The firm reports a new form of image-based sexual abuse in the UK, quoting at least 60pc of all revenge pornography victims being women (according to the UK Council for Internet Safety). In the rcently-passed Online Safety Act, creating or inciting the creation of deepfake pornography became a criminal offence. However, the survey suggests that this has not done much to alleviate fears around the tech, as most, 61pc of women were reporting concern about being a victim of it, in comparison to less than half (45pc) of men.

Near two in five (39pc) of those surveyed by Censuswide believe that deepfake pornography is a significant risk of sending intimate content, yet about a third (34pc) of adults have still sent them. Of those that do, the research suggests that a majority, 58pc regret sharing them, whether they say ‘Yes, I would never send an intimate photo or video again’ or ‘Yes, but I would send an intimate photo or video again’.

The percentage of people sending intimate images or videos drops to 12pc in the under-18s, perhaps due to the fact that a majority, 57pc of teenagers surveyed are concerned about being a victim of deepfake pornography.

Despite interest in deepfakes soaring, people are still taking risks, the firm suggests, as just under one third (31pc) admitted to sharing intimate images with their faces visible. The research found that the average age at which someone receives their first sexual image is 14.

Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor, ESET said: “These figures are deeply worrying as they show that people’s online habits haven’t adjusted to deepfakes yet. Digital images…

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Chinese hacking firm buys officials’ favor with alcohol, women

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  • By Dake Kang and Zen Soo / AP, BEIJING

China’s hackers for hire take government officials out for lavish banquets, binge drinking and late-night karaoke with young women to win favor and business, as revealed last month in a highly unusual leak of internal documents from a private contractor linked to Chinese police.

China’s hacking industry is vast in size and scope, but also has shady business practices, disgruntlement over pay and work quality, and poor security protocols, the documents showed.

Private hacking contractors are companies that steal data from other countries to sell to Chinese authorities. Over the past two decades, Chinese state security’s demand for overseas intelligence has soared, giving rise to a vast network of private hackers for hire companies that have infiltrated hundreds of systems outside China.

Photo: AP

Although the existence of these hacking contractors is an open secret in China, little was known about how they operate.

However, the leaked documents from a firm called I-Soon (安洵信息) have pulled back the curtain, revealing a seedy, sprawling industry where corners are cut, and rules are murky and poorly enforced in the quest to make money.

Leaked chat records showed that I-Soon executives are colluding with competitors to rig bidding for government contracts. They pay thousands of dollars in “introduction fees” to contacts who bring them lucrative projects.

I-Soon has not commented on the documents.

Mei Danowski, a cybersecurity analyst who wrote about I-Soon on her blog, Natto Thoughts, said the documents showed that China’s hackers for hire work much like any other industry in China.

“It is profit driven,” Danowski said. “It is subject to China’s business culture — who you know, who you dine and wine with, and who you are friends with.”

Although I-Soon boasted about its hacking prowess in…

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Father who hacked into 772 webcams to watch 47 women have sex was captured by the FBI after tip off

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  • Christopher Taylor was caught after the FBI was tipped off by IT specialists

A father-of-three who hacked into hundreds of webcams across the world so he could spy on women undressing and having sex is facing jail after IT specialists tipped off the FBI. 

Christopher Taylor, 60, was caught when IT staff at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta alerted the FBI after the malware was found on the laptop of a student at its aerospace laboratory.

Taylor had tricked 772 people in 39 different countries into unwittingly relinquishing control of their computers so he could monitor their private lives over a three-year period.

Police believe 47 women were secretly watched by the married man from his laptop at his £170,000 semi-detached home in Wigan, Greater Manchester, while engaging in sexual activity with their partners. 

A prosecutor said the malware was detected on a student’s laptop by the ‘sophisticated spyware systems’ at Georgia Institute of Technology. That enabled FBI agents to link it back to Taylor’s unassuming home in north west England.

Christopher Taylor, 60, pictured outside Bolton Crown Court, hacked into hundreds of webcams across the world so he could spy on women undressing and having sex
Taylor’s home in Wigan, Greater Manchester, where police believe he secretly watched 47 women

The investigation found Taylor had deleted thousands of files before his arrest.

When British police raided his home, Taylor – a full-time carer for his wife Wendy – told officers: ‘It’s just what I’ve been meddling with on the computer.

He faced extradition proceedings to face trial in the US for wire fraud and computer fraud, but the request was turned down after a judge in London ruled it would ‘negatively impact’ his ailing wife.

More than seven years after his original arrest, Taylor could be jailed today after he admitted securing unauthorised access to computer material and voyeurism.

Taylor also admitted possession of extreme pornography over obscene images found on his devices.

He lured in his unwitting victims with a phony link he placed on porn sites which, when clicked, would allow him full access to their laptop’s function, Bolton Crown Court heard.

He was found to have…

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Two women, one Social Security number, and a mighty big mess

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They have the same name. They were born on the same day in South Korea. And they were both assigned the same Social Security number after they emigrated to the United States.

This bureaucratic bungle has bedeviled Jieun Kim, of Los Angeles, and Jieun Kim, who lives just outside Chicago in Evanston, Illinois, for almost as long as they’ve been in this country.

Over the past five years, the 31-year-old women have had their banking and savings accounts shut down. They have had their credit cards blocked. They have been suspected of engaging in identity theft.

And, they say, the Social Security Administration has been either unable, or unwilling, to rectify its mistake.

The result has been a level of frustration that LA Kim has likened to “throwing (an) egg onto the huge rock.”

“I’m left with fear about what is in store for me as I have to deal with this terrible aftermath of the Social Security Administration’s mistake in giving one Social Security number to two people,” she said.

Chicagoland Kim said the SSA won’t own up to its mistake.

“This kind of mix-up can happen with Asian people because they have very similar names,” she says she was told by its workers.

But after she recently filled out an application to get a new Social Security number, the SSA sent her the same number she had before and blamed the snafu on computer error.

“This is because the computer recognizes you guys as one person,” Chicagoland Kim says she was told by agency workers.

More ominously, LA Kim said, she was warned by some of the SSA workers she dealt with not to make a fuss about the mistake because it could delay her getting a green card.

“The officer told me that talking about this Social Security number mix-up could result in delaying the green card process that could be done in six months to 2-3 years,” she said.

NBC News reached out to the SSA by email and telephone Wednesday seeking an explanation for how the two women ended up with the same Social Security number, and for comment on the insensitive and threatening remarks the two women say agency workers made. The agency has not responded.

James A. Lewis, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International…

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