Extortion / Blackmail

                                  Extortion / Blackmail

Computer Blackmail or Extortion is the threat of "public defamation" or similar damage with the objective of obtaining some pecuniary or material gain from someone, or forcing them to act in a certain way.

Within the cybercrime this figure takes a special form with the "extortion" and "threats" that a person may suffer online, requesting sexual content or to minors using social networks; but it can also occur through cyber attacks to a web page or blog, attacking its structure and functioning or collapsing its servers and in return request amounts for various amounts so that everything works again as before.

The increasingly widespread use of the Internet and social networks cause the birth and proliferation of new crimes that, although they resemble others outside the network, can become more dangerous. We are talking about extortion and blackmail, two activities that can cause great harm to their victims and to which we can all be exposed.

Many of these extortion crimes are related to sexual issues. The procedure is simple: the victims know the blackmailers on Internet pages and end up sharing nudes before the webcam or through photographs. Afterwards, he blackmails his victim to pay him a certain amount of money if he does not want to publish the photos or the images of the webcam.

Prevention, the best weapon


It is very important to have a responsible attitude in the network. We should not trust people we do not know, and of course not give personal information or send images or videos that could compromise us. Remember that behind a profile that we believe is true, you can hide a person whose goal is to harm us, and we will not know until we meet him in person or until he commits the crime. If we have already been victims of blackmail, we should not give in, and we should go immediately to the nearest police station or telephone the police. They will tell us what to do without endangering our integrity.

Social networks play a very important role in this kind of Internet blackmail that is also easily spread by the anonymity offered by the Network and which also serves as protection for criminals. This type of crime is a challenge that is currently faced by authorities around the world and that it is necessary to control for the eradication of cybercrime.

hacker or trusted insider steals information and demands compensation for its return

example:  theft of data files containing customer credit card information.