Miss Teen USA Defies Sextortion Plot

miss teen usa

Placing more of our gadgets on the web provides many conveniences. Unfortunately they also make it easier for hackers to invade our privacy. This ranges from taking control of devices ranging fromĀ  smart cars to baby monitors. Cassidy Wolf, Miss Teen USA, was the target of a sextortion plot in which hackers took nude photos of her over the webcam on her laptop computer and threatened to post them on line. Rather than giving into this extortion, Wolf has been going on television publicizing this problem, hopefully protecting others from the same invasions of their privacy:

Recently crowned Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf has been making the rounds on news programs talking not only about her beauty pageant win but something far more insidious. It seems that before being crowned, a hacker took control of the 19-year old’s webcam and attempted to blackmail her.

Wolf told TODAY.com that she first became aware of the intrusion four months ago, when Facebook warned her of an attempted login in a different state. This was quickly followed by an email from the hacker, claiming to have nude photos of Wolf taken with her webcam. Wolf was in high school at the time.

In interviews, Wolf said that she had no idea that she was being watched and that the light on her webcam was never lit.

Going on television should help publicize a problem which so far has obtained attention primarily on tech sites which most people do not read. The FBI is investigating this case.

Update: The person responsible for this extortion has been apprehended by the FBI.

Leave a comment