The era we are living in is the digital age. This digitization has brought us a lot of benefits. In this digital world, we are taking everything online so that we can access our data whenever we want. This digitization, which is a great convenience, also brings with it some risks. A similar incident happened in 2014, which we know as “The Fappening.” In this, private, intimate photos of many world-famous celebrities were leaked. After which people came to know about the security issues of the digital world. After the incident of The Fappening, people also noticed the shortcomings of the security of digitization and its side effects. We will discuss this in detail in our blog, “The Fappening Blog.”
It was the year of August 2014 when leaked photos and videos of many celebrities started appearing on online websites and forums. Photos and videos of celebrities started appearing one after the other, and very soon these photos and videos became viral on famous sites like Reddit. Not only was the media abuzz with The Fappening, but a lot of debates also took place regarding it. This incident got its name from the mixture of Fappening and local language. “The Fappening” was a massive breach in which more than 550 photos of different celebrities were leaked. This made people pay attention to how important it is to keep online data secure.
How did such an incident happen?
A phishing scheme and brute force attack method were used to carry out the Fappening. In these methods, hackers sent targeted phishing emails. In these emails, hackers forced the celebrities and victims to share their online ID credentials, or they somehow made the victims click on malicious sites. To get clicks on malicious sites, hackers make a duplicate of some famous and trustworthy site and keep the data of the visitors visiting that site, i.e., the visitor’s ID and password, without the user’s permission. After getting the ID and password in this way, the hackers accessed the cloud and uploaded the photos on several sites and made those personal photos viral.
The cloud service of that time was not as strong and secure as today’s; due to this, the hackers also got the opportunity. At that time in the cloud service, users could process the login attempt multiple times, due to which also the hackers got the opportunity. If there was a limit on login attempts, then this might not have happened.
Legal and moral concerns
After this incident, many questions were raised on the right to privacy and moral concerns, especially in the matter of sharing non-consensual content. The hackers were caught, and a case was also filed against them for being criminals, but preventing the sharing of photos and videos that had gone viral and were in the possession of other users was a very difficult situation at that time.
According to the law, the American government at that time considered this incident an attack on other’s privacy and spreading it among people without permission as an act of computer fraud and abuse. The celebrities whose photos or videos went viral also took legal action against those who were sharing the photos or videos. Two years later, i.e., in 2016, a hacker was also caught and was sentenced to 18 months in federal jail. After this step, it was a scary thing for any hacker or host.
Modifications to Security Procedures
After a big incident like The Fappening, questions started being raised on the security of the devices of big tech companies, regarding which many companies focused on their security and improved it. Just like Apple reviewed its security protocol after this incident and made some major improvements in its security:
Two-factor authentication
In this option, login to any site is not possible only with a password; rather, the user has to verify with an extra code or OTP that comes on the user’s mail or number.
Strong password policy
After the introduction of this function, the user is forced to use a strong password so that it becomes difficult for a hacker to guess the password. And if someone tries too much, we get an alert from email.
Campaign for user awareness
Campaigns were run from time to time on how to avoid phishing and other types of attacks and how to stay safe and secure.
Every person was appealed to follow all these steps. These steps were beneficial for everyone and not just for celebrities. Security improved a lot with these steps, and people also became aware. After this incident, it became known that the use of technology is beneficial, but at the same time, it is also important for the users to be aware.
Effects on society and lessons learned
After the Fappening incident, people’s perspectives on digital privacy changed. This incident made everyone realize that no matter how private the data is, it has vulnerabilities for a determined hacker. The Fappening incident was a lesson for celebrities as well as common people that security practices must be done from time to time.
When the Fappening incident occurred, there were many debates on the moral behavior of people, due to which a new concept came to the fore in society, which was called “victim-blaming.” In which societies wrongly accuse the victims that their data was not protected, while in reality the victims are not at fault in this, but it is the fault of those who hack and share it that they intrude into someone’s privacy.
Because of the Fappening, many people lost their privacy. But this incident made people cautious about digital security and personal security. Strong security protocols were made after this incident. Along with that, strict legal action was taken on privacy violations, and everyone’s attention was paid to online ethical behavior. From this incident, we have learnt that we must act responsibly and intelligently while navigating in the online digital world. Everyone’s privacy must be respected; one must not pry into anyone’s privacy life. There is a long list of victims of The Fappening.
If you want to know more about how this ‘fappening’ incident was carried out and which celebrities were affected by this incident, then click on the fappening. This article is only to make people aware and alert.