Cybercrime: a criminal offense?

Last August, a major security breach occurred when hackers on iCloud leaked hundreds of nude photos of celebrities onto major social networking sites, such as Reddit, 4chan, and Imgur. When the photos were posted anonymously onto 4chan, they spread rapidly, and although the incident came to light on Aug. 31, there are rumors that these photos have been circulating for months already.

“I definitely don’t think this is okay,” says senior Karen Chow. “A lot of people are being insensitive. I mean, it’s not like you have privacy when you’re a celebrity, but still, this isn’t okay.”

This leak of photos is an example of cybercrime. According to Norton Internet Security services, cybercrime is an umbrella term that covers acts of cyberstalking, harassment, extortion, and blackmail online. Other examples of cybercrime include a leak on Snapchat in late 2014.

According to CBS News, approximately 4.6 million Snapchat usernames attached to phone numbers were leaked in January. Although passwords remained untouched, the incident disenchanted many Snapchat users.

Senior Christian Carlson notes that Target experienced a similar credit card breach late fall. According to Target’s website, over 70 million people were affected. Several criminals obtained the Target guest credit and debit card information, along with customers’ names, phone numbers, and addresses.

“My mom was actually affected by this security breach,” says Carlson. “She got a call from Target saying that there was a possibility her credit card got leaked, because it was linked to Target. There might’ve been a possibility that her phone number was also taken, along with our address and other things. It wasn’t a big deal, but she still had to call Amex to cancel her credit wcard.”

Aragon students believe there is a line to be drawn. Senior Jocelyn Chin says, “There’s really a difference between what’s okay and not. Like the issue of Netflix—I think it’s okay if you use your friends account and you let them know. Or similarly, downloading music for free. Not that I do these things, but I know the fame and attention everyone attracts is already going to earn them a lot of money.”

Senior Nia Gallegos doesn’t think piracy should matter much for singers anyways. “Yeah, I mean they [singers] get paid for so much other things too like concerts, meetings, signings, and appearances so like why do people still have to pay for their music? Music should just be free.”

Junior Hannah Koury feels that music shouldn’t be pirated. “My friend gave me a CD of a song she composed and recorded—that’s definitely okay. But I don’t think it’s okay when you go online and download a song without the composer or artist’s permission. Artists work so hard for their songs, and a lot of people take that for granted.”

In response to online breaches and piracy, Chow says, “Honestly, some people just assume laws don’t matter on the internet because they’re completely anonymous. It’s not like they know the laws don’t exist, it’s just that they don’t feel they’ll get caught.”

Senior Elaine Hsu agrees. “People think they can get away with things on the internet because they won’t get caught. People feel like they’re just one online user out of a million. But still, it’s definitely not okay if you leak online photos of celebrities.”

“Online piracy isn’t okay either,” says Koury. “Who’s going to catch you out of millions of people who pirate videos and music online illegally? I find it sad that many people don’t think twice about their actions online.”