undefined | Better HN

0 pointscrankylinuxuser6y ago0 comments

/serious hat

I don't believe there's been a case history yet of "hacking + sex crime", but many of us in the community believe that this is a strong possibility.

It's one thing to target fintech, or some website, or a general SaaS offering. However when you're targeting sextech with the knowledge that a hack allows remote unintended stimulation (read: sexual assault), shows that they intended the hack and intended sexual assault.

0 comments

4 comments · 2 top-level

pmichaud6y ago· 2 in thread

I get what you're saying in the abstract, but when I try to imagine it concretely, it stops making sense to me. Eg. a person is using a sex toy and tries to make it vibrate a certain way, but an attacker has caused it vibrate a different way. Sure, in some vague sense it's an unwanted type of stimulation and someone is involved in it that isn't supposed to be. But I think that scenario tortures the definition of sexual assault beyond recognition. Am I just not thinking of more obvious cases?

crankylinuxuserOP6y ago

For example, say someone is in the BDSM scene, and hands their lover access to a buttplug that they are wearing. The plug is tied to the phone via BT and an app. The lover can stimulate when they wish. There's intent and consent here.

Hacker shows up on the appservers, causing the buttplugs to continuously stimulate. There was no consent here, as the consent was only to the lover. This third party who committed a crime to gain access never had any permission.

Consent was not there. Hacker used illegitimate access to then physically commit battery (lay hands or object on person without approval) in a sexual way.

downerending6y ago

Getting a bit gross here, you might feel pretty assaulted if the person doing the breaking was someone you knew, maybe someone you detested, or maybe a parent or step-parent or older relative. Or younger, for that matter.

I could keep going, but it gets worse...

qdot763676y ago

Depends on how you frame it, really. Julian Dibble's "A Rape In Cyberspace" is a oft-referenced piece here, written about LambdaMOO in the mid 90s, but still applicable to online environments today.

(CW for reasons apparent in the title of the piece)

http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse