Assignment #2 - Jenny Måkestad

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/nyregion/eight-charged-in-45-million-global

This article is about an abnormal bank heist; the thieves never set foot in the vault. They managed to steal over $45 million from A.T.M´s all over the world in the course of hours. They drained cash machines with help from computers and the Internet. Using advanced hacking techniques and manipulating financial information they easily turned digits into cash.

This crime was most likely a result of dissociative anonymity, because they thieves never had to give away their identity as they were robbing people worldwide. It gave them the ability to hide their identities and separate their actions from the real world. This probably made them feel less vulnerable. By using the Internet, and not showing their true identity, the scheme got less risky and a lot easier than actually robbing a bank.

Assignment #2: Scottish teenager commits suicide over Skype blackmail scam – Amanda Hariri

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/16/world/europe/uk-cyber-blackmail-suicide/index.html

Reports claim that in July of this year Scottish teenager Daniel Perry committed suicide after falling victim to an Internet blackmail scam. The criminals behind the scam lured Perry into Skype video chats with what seemed to be an American girl around his age, which they recorded without the his knowledge. Later, the criminals demanded money from Perry lest they reveal the recorded interactions – which had subsequently been manipulated to embarrass or shame Perry – to his family. Reports also claim Perry was mocked and harassed by trolls who encourage him to take his own life on Ask.fm, a social networking site where users can ask each other questions with the option of remaining anonymous.

I feel like this combined victimization of Perry by Internet blackmailing and cyberbullying clearly illustrates invisibilty (for the blackmailers on Skype) and dissociative imagination (for the cyberbullies on Ask.fm). 

Invisibility played a major role in disinhibiting the blackmailers because not even their existence was revealed to Perry until they demanded money from him. It is unclear how the criminals executed the scam; they may have hired a girl to talk to Perry, or they found some way to hack into the Skype system so they could monitor chats unbeknownst to either party in the interaction. Regardless, they did so invisibly (fully before revealing their existence, partially after confronting Perry), which likely gave them the confidence to manipulate and threaten Perry.

For the cyberbullies, invisibility may have also worked in their favor if they chose to stay anonymous/used fake names on Ask.fm. Invisibility may have disinhibited them in the sense that they’d feel less apprehensive being abusive online if no one could trace it back to them. However, I feel this is a stronger example of dissociative imagination, because it’s possible the cyberbullies did not think their online actions would have had any real-life consequences. These trolls were most likely in it for the “fun” of it, and never in their lives truly thought Perry would actually kill himself. Even if they did, dissociative imagination suggests they wanted “make-believe, Internet Perry” to kill himself, i.e., that Perry who they think doesn’t actually exist in reality.

(Also, if Perry was anonymous in his posts on Ask.fm, this could have led to the cyberbulling in that it allowed him the courage in posting something he may have not shared if his identity was revealed, and that it might have allowed cyberbullies more confidence in their abuse if they felt even more detached to the victim.)

Assignment #2 - Bjørnar V. Christiansen

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10338505/Man-arrested-after-hacking-into-Miss-Teen-USAs-webcam.html

On September 27th 2013, Jared James Abrahams was arrested by the FBI after hacking into multiple webcams in California and also Canada, Russia and Moldova. Miss Teen USA, Cassidy Wolf, was one of the victims of these hackings. Abrahams hacked into the webcam on Wolfs laptop and told her that if she did not send him a personal video of herself, joined him on Skype for a video chat or sent him high quality pictures of herself, he would distribute webcam shots of her all over the internet. Abrahams appeared in court and was later released after a $50,000 bail.

This online crime seems to be motivated by disinhibition. It seems like the hacker believed that no one could determine who he was, and so he went on and hacked into these girls webcams, and then started interacting with them. We could say that this is a case of "Dissocative Anynomity", which means that the Abrahams thought he had the opportunity to separate his online actions from his public life and to be disconnected from the consequences of his actions, or at least though that there was little chance that his identity would be reviled and he would be caught. To which degree he actually convinced himself that his behaviours online was him or not, is hard to tell based on the info of this article. 

12-year-old's suicide spotlights cyber-bullying threat - Joseph Ricasa

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57602993/12-year-olds-suicide-spotlights-cyber-bullying-threat/

Twelve year old Rebecca Sedwick committed suicide after several months of cyber bullying by her peers. The comments directed towards her were abusive to the point of calling for Sedwick to end her own life. The topic of cyber bullying has been brought up in class before, and I don’t think it is particularly unique to this case that the victim knew the bullies personally.

Dissociative anonymity probably does not play as large as a role in this as the identities of the abusers were probably known to Sedwick. Invisibility probably played a much larger role. While represented through their online profiles, the abusers weren’t seen in a physical space. This probably allowed them to be bolder in their actions. Suler writes that invisibility plays a role even when all of the identities of the users are known. Because the abusers could not be seen they acted out further. Also, they do not see Sedwick while taunting and abusing her, so they probably felt little to no empathy for their actions.

Dissociative imagination plays a large role in this crime. The bullies probably assumed their bullying as harmless fun. They probably also did not feel that the consequences of their words were real because they perceive the internet as separate from reality. As we have discussed in class, however, actions on the internet do have real world consequences. This bullying ultimately culminated in Rebecca Sedwick’s suicide.

Google Disrupts Thousands of Phishing Attacks in Iran - Eric Snyder

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-detects-tens-of-thousands-of-politically-motivated-phishing-attacks-ahead-of-iranian-elections-8657571.html

Eric Snyder

In June of 2013, a press release came out concerning Google’s disruption of ten’s of thousands of phishing attacks.  Experts suspect that the attacks are politically linked to the upcoming election of the Iranian president.  They believe this because the increased attacks are located in Iran. Also, these attacks resemble attacks that sky rocketed in 2011 that were linked to another election.  Phishing attacks are when massive amounts of anonymous e-mails are sent out that persuades people to click on a link and perhaps give some personal information about themselves, i.e.: usernames, passwords, birthdates, which the attacker could then use for some other reason.  For this reason, Google is recommending users to take extra precaution especially if you are an Iranian citizen. 

            This crime is a clear representation of Dissociative Anonymity.  Dissociative Anonymity coincides with the separation of some one’s real world life and online life.  No one knows who you are online.  While people can see a user name, maybe an email, they really have no way to know who you are except for what you tell them.  Perhaps if a user is technologically savvy, they could trace the IP address, but even then, there is not much they can derive other than what the person gives them. The Phishers in this rely on this anonymity.  I fact, they may even pretend to be someone else.  The fact that there are little consequences for their actions other than Google disrupting it. No one really knows who these individuals are. Most likely the people that are running these phishing attacks would not be doing this in face-to-face communication.  Also, the victim most likely would not easily give out sensitive information so easily in a face-to-face interaction, making this case an example not only of toxic disinhibition, but also benign disinhibition. 

            When meeting a person face to face would you give them your password, username, birthdate and everything in-between?  There is more than just toxic disinhibition, there is benign disinhibition as well.  Over the Internet people often trust more.  People feel more comfortable sending a naked picture then getting naked in front of the person, they more easily give out confidential information.  This can be for numerous reasons; one being that text is not nearly as threatening as a face-to-face confrontation.  Another being that the consequences are not immediately felt, which Suler describes as Asynchronicity.  Clearly though there is disinhibition represented in this case not only from the attacker but perhaps also the victim.  

China teen arrested for controversial crime of spreading rumors online - Aria Aminian

China teen arrested for controversial crime of spreading

rumors online

This article is about a 16 year old Chinese schoolboy who was arrested for

spreading rumors over the internet that was questioning a crime investigation the

police was involved with. Police reported an “accidental” death of a man falling from

the second floor, but the boy, Yang, believes he was severely beaten then thrown off

the second floor. He wrote his beliefs on his QQ account, which is a Chinese message

board that is popular amongst the youth. In early September there was a ruling in

the Chinese Supreme Court that declared :“somebody spreading a rumor on the

Internet could be punished if a message was reposted 500 times or viewed more

than 5,000 times.” Yang’s post created a lot of attention with the public and after he

was detained, Yang was seen as a free speech figure.

In this article Yang was charged with a crime in China. Although I don’t believe he

did anything wrong, it was noted as “breaking the law” in China due to the new

rules and regulations that were enforced. Of the different causes Suler identifies

as generating disinhibition, I would say that “invisibility” was Yang’s leading tool

used in disinhibition. I believe that after the new law that was declared, Yang was

nervous to speak his mind physically, and although spreading rumors via the

internet was illegal, he probably felt the risk of getting identified was low. Besides

the idea of just physically calling out the police and creating conspiracies, I think

Yang might be a little insecure and would prefer to hide behind his computer and

let his text cause all the movements that he felt should be heard within the public.

Yang was trying to bring justice to a case he felt was being ignored, he questioned

the police and brought new ideas to the public mind and was noted as a criminal

for it. Many people including Yang use the internet as a tool to hide, to be invisible,

because the reader doesn’t know who they are receiving this information from,

so there might be more of chance of people taking them seriously. In Yang’s case,

he was a 16-year-old boy, he might have believed that no one in his or her right

minds would sit and read about his opinions on crooked law enforcement and

conspiracies. He would prefer to stay “invisible” and let people read the text prior to

giving them a chance to judge him about his age or education level.

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-china-arrest-rumors-internet-

20130921,0,2831881.story

Silk Road - Glen Coleman

Feds Nab Alleged Leader of ‘Silk Road’ Online Drug Market

Article from The Wall Street Journal, Tech section, October 2, 13.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/10/02/feds-nab-alleged-leader-of-silk-road-online-drug-market

By: Glen Coleman



People will now likely be going to other sources to buy their illegal prescriptions, narcotics,

explosives and other forms of contraband online, or what I’m dubbing as the “E-underground”

(it’s not in Urban Dictionary), or more specifically what is known as the online underground

market place the ‘Silk Road.’ In this article despite encryption techniques the Feds have finally

tracked down and arrested the alleged ringleader of The Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, on Tuesday

10/2 in a San Francisco coffee shop. It is unclear in the article how the Feds tracked Ulbricht

down, however, it is clear that the government now has the ability to unmask the anonymity of

hidden proxy servers like Tor.



According to Suler, I believe Ulbricht exhibited a form of unrestrained toxic disinhibition (the

crime of running the site), amplified by Invisibility (or anonymity), which gave Ulbricht the

courage to commit the act, which was exacerbated by the Minimized Status of Authority (or the

relative lawlessness and enforcement of virtual space). Unlike most cyber crime there was no

scamming or fraud involved. In fact the site operated quite the opposite, through fair exchanges

(goods for e-currency in escrow), albeit the types of goods being sold were unlawful. Any

assessment signals by the purchaser would have to be probed through a seller’s avatar, feedback,

and or rating.



The Feds were also able to confiscate around $3.6M in electronic currency. This challenges and

undermines the security and anonymity of the now famous electronic currency Bitcoin. Bitcoin

has been under much pressure lately for regulation from authorities. One could even drag

Friedman slash Hayek logic into this whole argument, that spontaneous markets should be

allowed to flourish with little government intervention, thus the sites owner, and its patrons

individual liberties have both been mitigated by the US Federal Government.