The Netflix documentary The Most Hated Man on the Internet highlights the willingness of some to do anything to make some money and how vulnerable we are to those who are intent at getting access to our accounts. In this case to post naked pictures without permission on a website to get visits and money for ad impressions

Copyright law could allow you to have the images removed but was a civil lawsuit for personal images at the time, thankfully that has now been changed and there are harsh penalties for publishing this content which is generally referred to as revenge porn.

In this case the criminal offence was hacking. It is incredible that the sentence was less than three years. It was a plea deal, which is likely why it was less harsh. Although given the seriousness of the offence and how long the site remained live (from 2010 to 2012) and that they knowingly targeted people for the purpose of finding naked images to post them publicly and include their personal information for ad revenue.

You might think that the risk is much lower now, that the penalties are much greater because there are more laws in place, which while not incorrect, is cold comfort should someone find out that they have been hacked and lost control of their accounts and its contents.

The hacks then much like now depend on phishing and our limited ability to understand the implications of getting hacked.

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