A
gang of 8 disguised as IT engineers to fix computers for the Barclay
banks. They used gadgets called keyboard video mouse (KVM), a device
that allowed the hackers to access its network remotely and transfer
money into their own accounts. The gang had successfully stolen £1.3
million from customer accounts. The Metropolitan Police Department is
currently trying to retrieve the money lost from the bank and also
investigate the device used, which is available at every electronic
store.
I think the most likely reason to motivate this crime
on the Barclay Bank is invisibility. Invisibility can be explained in
two different aspects of this case. First, the physical disguise of the
gang member has the same meaning of someone on the internet. No one
knows your true identity. It is completely anonymous to other people.
Second part of invisibility applies to the ability of the gang’s
hacking. Through the KVM device and manipulation of the computer’s
coding, they are able to retrieve information from the bank without the
bank noticing such theft from afar. Even though 8 members are caught, I
believe there are others staying invisible in the dark awaiting their
next opportunity to hack into other banks and steal money and data using
the same method.
Name: Tiffany Sam
Link: http://www.wctv.tv/home/
In this case, the internet was used to sell and buy wildlife against
state legislation. These businesses did not have licenses to conduct
their business operations, fish, or hunt. Not only were these
organizations conducting business illegally and with unsafe practices,
they were driving business and support away from the legitimate,
licensed sellers. The businesses thought that “operating online is a way
to get away with taking advantage of protected species.” The businesses
were most likely influenced by three forms of online disinhibition:
dissociative anonymity, invisibility, and minimization of authority.
In terms of dissociative anonymity, because the internet
provides a natural veil of anonymity, the traders had could have felt
they had nothing to be afraid of. The mask of anonymity meant that no
one would be able to find their true identities. However, this also
meant that they did not know who they were trading with or dealing with
on the other end; the very agencies that were tracking them could have
used this veil to their advantage while doing undercover work. The
internet’s characteristic of invisibility couples with the dissociative
anonymity to allow the traders to be brave in their illegal dealings.
This invisibility could have encouraged the business to make bigger
deals and expand their business more rapidly.
Finally, the
minimization of authority could have acted as a way for the businesses
to feel that the law enforcement bodies were not as powerful or capable
offline as online. This equalizing factor could have again encouraged
the businesses to be more expansive and extensive in their trades
because they were not afraid of being caught by an authority figure.
Name: Jenny Chen
Link: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/27/nation/la-na-nn-anonymous-koch-hack-20130327
Potentially facing several years of federal prison, a Wisconsin man named Eric J. Rosol is charged of assisting the group Anonymous with the destruction of Koch Industries' (an oil and manufacturing company) website. With the use of online chats, Rosol was able to spearhead the hunt in an anonymous fashion. The manner in which they brought down the website was by using a dedicated denial-of-service attack (DDOS), where users will continuously visit the website until it crashes. Some say that this was a form of overloading the website rather than hacking. Consequently, he was charged with 5 years of prison and a $250,000 fine.
The main reason as to why this situation would occur is due to the power of "invisibility." Originally thought to be anonymous, Rosol mistakenly didn't cover his tracks well enough as he didn't think of the consequences for his actions. Because he assumed to be invincible online, Rosol didn't take the time to research the specific repercussions - along with his other partners. Not only this, he was leading such a hunt in the comfort of his own home - safe and shielded from the police. His partners in crime weren't worrying about the dire effects of such a crime, so why should he?
Name: Eric Hsieh
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/
On June 22, a user named “Abidah” found out he lost 200,000 gold on his
World of Warcraft account. After investigation, Blizzard discovered
that the Auction House Web and mobile app had been hacked. In response,
Blizzard shut down the app the following day. To steal gold, the hackers
list cheap items on the Auction House asking for incredible high
prices. Then using players’ hacked accounts to buy those items, getting
the in-game-gold, which can be sold to other players for real money.
The most likely reason to motivate the criminal activity on online
games is invisibility described by Suler. In a hacker activity like
this, there is no way for the victim to know who the thief is, ie. the
hackers are invisible. On the other hand, Blizzard’s focus would be
fixing the application to prevent further hacking incidents and
compensating the victims. In reality, little actions are done to catch
the hackers due to the priority of the company and the difficultness to
track online connections. Since the risk of getting caught and the
potential punishment are low, the invisibility along with the factors
stated above motivates hacker activities on online games.
Name: Matthew Shong
Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Just how a professor lectures his/her class, arming them with the
knowledge and headfast determination to use and apply his gracious gift
to first the midterm and then onto the real world, this particular crime
is no different. Compromising of a small-knit group of aged and greedy
men, a syndicate based in Spain gave any aspiring criminal that had the
drive to do evil, the tools to jump start whatever fraudulent cyber
fraud they had/could conceive. This group gave the complete online
profiles of British citizens with excellent credit ratings (driving
licenses, bank statements, passports, and anything worth even knowing
about you) to over 11,000 random
criminals with the intension of aiding them in committing a crime. And
of the 11,000 premeditated cyber criminals that were successful in their
crime, the syndicate would request a 50% cut of the winnings in return
for continual use of the citizen’s account. Failure to comply would
result in the syndicate ruining the credit score of the unknowing
citizen thereby cutting off any further attempts at cyber crime by the
fraudster off at the knees. This method was how the syndicate aided
literally thousands of layman criminals in committing an exponentially
greater amount of cyber fraud, allowing them getting rich while not
lifting a single finger to do the dirty work.
“Web chat forums
were a key part of the site, providing clients with information, advice
and coaching them on how to use the profiles and commit fraud, said the
Metropolitan Police.”
This particular crime highlights the
online disinhibition effect on both sides of the cyber crime classroom.
Communicating with thousands of criminals with intensions of committing
cyber crime, the members of the syndicate felt comfortable enough to
even train their criminal pawns due to the invisibility and dissociative
anonymity given by the internet. Because they felt that dissociate
anonymity protected whoever they were talking to from ever finding out
who they were and that the invisibility complex lessened the worry and
suspicion caused by physical communication, these masterminds openly
teach and honed the strategies of their member-base. On the other side,
the gift of basically free lessons and training on cyber crime and the
chance to do so, most likely gave potential fraudsters a dissociative
imagination to the physical and mental boundaries of morality in the
real world. Here was a way to cheat the system handed to them in a
silver platter and all they had to do was take it and run with it. That
can be a powerful dissociative disinhibitory effect on a person who
before was surrounded by so many social dictations and suddenly found
himself with none.
Name: Kenneth Oetomo
Link: http://www.nbcnews.com/
In this particular crime, Hackers are able to infiltrate computers and
make the infected computers, or "botnets", obey some server to do its
bidding, which could be distributing viruses or attacking computer
networks. A particular botnet called Citadel has targeted some large
financial institutions such as Bank of America, or PayPal and have
stolen large amounts of money. Invisibility is probably the major
motivation for the criminals who set up Citadel as the article notes
that the hackers are most likely stationed outside of the US and only
target US companies to avoid local authorities. Invisibility is a great
cover for a crime as the criminals enjoy less likelihood of getting
caught and are able to do so in the comfort of their own homes.
Additionally, there is an unknown amount of conspirators. Although
invisibility is similar to dissociative anonymity, invisibility means
that the presence of the hackers are not known - people do generally not
know when their computers are being controlled by the botnets, whereas
dissociative anonymity only means that an online persona is not
associated with the actual person. In this case, the hackers do not even
want an online persona because the online persona may be able to be
linked to them.
As for the victims, the article notes that
Microsoft believes the victims to be those who have downloaded illegal
copies of its popular software. Victims also experience invisibility
because in general, only the server is allowed to see who downloads from
it. Generally, no one else will know if the victim downloaded the
software unless the victim starts noticing the virus. The victims
downloaded illegally because they did not think they would get caught
downloading the software.
Name: Edward Zhao
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/
As of recently, an anonymous drug king ping who called himself "Dread
Pirate Roberts" has been arrested, resulting in the collapse of The Silk
Road, an anonymous site that in a nutshell, was the eBay for illicit
drugs. Roberts, whose real name is Ross William Ulbricht, was the
administrator for the Silk Road. Although he used various encryption
schemes, his identity was eventually discovered and he was arrested in
the San Francisco Public Library.
The Silk Road is a concrete
example of the allures of dissociate anonymity. The very basis of its
existence is rooted in anonymity. First of all, to even find out how to
access the Silk Road, one had to rely on word
of mouth. It was only recently that Dread Pirate Roberts, perhaps in a
moment of hubris, published a site SilkRoadLink.com that details how to
access his site to the general public. Furthermore, to access the
website, one has to use the Tor network, a method of rerouting
connections to several different locations to conceal his or hers IP
address, and thus, location. Once in, transactions were completed using
Bitcoin, a currency which was heralded as a private and secure way to
transfer funds online. Besides the structure of the business, which was
built on anonymity, the administrator Roberts himself was also afflicted
by dissociate anonymity. For instance, he brazenly gave out an
interview (anonymously of course) saying he beat the state in its war of
drugs through technology. Imagine in the real world, if a drug dealer
told journalists about his business and how he subverts law enforcement.
It would be unheard of. Yet, because of the comforts provided by the
blanket of dissociate anonymity, it was possible for Roberts to do so.
Ultimately, for the time that it lasted, The Silk Road, and by
extension, Roberts, took advantage of dissociate anonymity to create a
marketplace for illegal drugs online, a business model that flourished
until it was busted by the FBI.
In 2011, a group of six Londoners were arrested over the theft of
almost 1 million pounds. They sent out emails to students seemingly
from their respective universities asking them to update their banking
information. The students were sent to a bogus website where their
information was saved and money was taken out of their accounts.
This is a example of the dissociate anonymity disinhibition that John
Suler writes about. In this example, the students were unable to verify
whether or not this email truly came from their school, an institution
which they trust. They trusted the email they received and ended up
paying the price for their trust. Because the senders of the email are
anonymous over the internet, they were able to scam the students.
This is also an example of the invisibility disinhibition. More than
likely, those arrested would have been unwilling, or unable to commit
such a crime face to face. From the internet they are able to cheat not
faces, not even names, but emails out of money. The lack of actually
seeing a person makes this crime more acceptable morally.
Name: Kenneth Do
Link: http://www.reuters.com/
On September 20, 2013, Eight men were arrested over the alleged theft
of $2.1 million. They committed this crime disguising themselves as
engineers and using a hardware device, took over one of Barclay's
computer system.
This crime is an example of the Invisibility
disinhibition effect described by John Suler. As mentioned earlier, the
eight men were first disguised as engineers. This was their physical
disguise, but it was actually their hacking that provided them the
greater sense of stealth. They were able to sneak in without catching
anybody's attention only due to the fact that their manipulation of
Barclay's computer system allowed them to seem. After successfully
hacking the system, the men knew they were going to be able to sneak in
and out of the bank undetected, as if they were invisible.
Name: Justine Law
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/
This article talks about two major bank robberies. In May of this year,
a group of hackers put their yearlong plan into action: pulling off a
$45 million ATM robbery. By overriding withdrawal limits on debit cards,
they were able to take out as much cash as they desired -- and it was
not limited to one country; it affected 27 countries. The other scam
that happened earlier this year scammed over 36,000 people (in real
life) by planting card reading devices in transaction terminals, later
using these codes and PIN numbers in order to make illegal purchases on
their own.
I think that this is an example of Dissociative
Anonymity. It can be compared to a group of robbers physically entering a
bank and causing a commotion - but with masks on. The idea that the
hacker cannot be easily singled out as a criminal could be a driving
force for this type of action. These crimes affect people on the other
end, but it only has positive effects for the hacker (until they are
caught). Similarly, the victims are also anonymous, and they are also
random. They are not singled out by the hacker, but they are victimized
randomly -- and they do not know they have been wronged until it is too
late.
I think the most likely reason to motivate this crime on the Barclay Bank is invisibility. Invisibility can be explained in two different aspects of this case. First, the physical disguise of the gang member has the same meaning of someone on the internet. No one knows your true identity. It is completely anonymous to other people. Second part of invisibility applies to the ability of the gang’s hacking. Through the KVM device and manipulation of the computer’s coding, they are able to retrieve information from the bank without the bank noticing such theft from afar. Even though 8 members are caught, I believe there are others staying invisible in the dark awaiting their next opportunity to hack into other banks and steal money and data using the same method.
Name: Tiffany SamLink: http://www.wctv.tv/home/
In this case, the internet was used to sell and buy wildlife against
state legislation. These businesses did not have licenses to conduct
their business operations, fish, or hunt. Not only were these
organizations conducting business illegally and with unsafe practices,
they were driving business and support away from the legitimate,
licensed sellers. The businesses thought that “operating online is a way
to get away with taking advantage of protected species.” The businesses
were most likely influenced by three forms of online disinhibition:
dissociative anonymity, invisibility, and minimization of authority.
In terms of dissociative anonymity, because the internet
provides a natural veil of anonymity, the traders had could have felt
they had nothing to be afraid of. The mask of anonymity meant that no
one would be able to find their true identities. However, this also
meant that they did not know who they were trading with or dealing with
on the other end; the very agencies that were tracking them could have
used this veil to their advantage while doing undercover work. The
internet’s characteristic of invisibility couples with the dissociative
anonymity to allow the traders to be brave in their illegal dealings.
This invisibility could have encouraged the business to make bigger
deals and expand their business more rapidly.
Finally, the
minimization of authority could have acted as a way for the businesses
to feel that the law enforcement bodies were not as powerful or capable
offline as online. This equalizing factor could have again encouraged
the businesses to be more expansive and extensive in their trades
because they were not afraid of being caught by an authority figure.
Name: Jenny Chen
Link: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/27/nation/la-na-nn-anonymous-koch-hack-20130327
Potentially facing several years of federal prison, a Wisconsin man named Eric J. Rosol is charged of assisting the group Anonymous with the destruction of Koch Industries' (an oil and manufacturing company) website. With the use of online chats, Rosol was able to spearhead the hunt in an anonymous fashion. The manner in which they brought down the website was by using a dedicated denial-of-service attack (DDOS), where users will continuously visit the website until it crashes. Some say that this was a form of overloading the website rather than hacking. Consequently, he was charged with 5 years of prison and a $250,000 fine.
The main reason as to why this situation would occur is due to the power of "invisibility." Originally thought to be anonymous, Rosol mistakenly didn't cover his tracks well enough as he didn't think of the consequences for his actions. Because he assumed to be invincible online, Rosol didn't take the time to research the specific repercussions - along with his other partners. Not only this, he was leading such a hunt in the comfort of his own home - safe and shielded from the police. His partners in crime weren't worrying about the dire effects of such a crime, so why should he?
Name: Eric Hsieh
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/
On June 22, a user named “Abidah” found out he lost 200,000 gold on his
World of Warcraft account. After investigation, Blizzard discovered
that the Auction House Web and mobile app had been hacked. In response,
Blizzard shut down the app the following day. To steal gold, the hackers
list cheap items on the Auction House asking for incredible high
prices. Then using players’ hacked accounts to buy those items, getting
the in-game-gold, which can be sold to other players for real money.
The most likely reason to motivate the criminal activity on online
games is invisibility described by Suler. In a hacker activity like
this, there is no way for the victim to know who the thief is, ie. the
hackers are invisible. On the other hand, Blizzard’s focus would be
fixing the application to prevent further hacking incidents and
compensating the victims. In reality, little actions are done to catch
the hackers due to the priority of the company and the difficultness to
track online connections. Since the risk of getting caught and the
potential punishment are low, the invisibility along with the factors
stated above motivates hacker activities on online games.
Name: Matthew Shong
Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Just how a professor lectures his/her class, arming them with the
knowledge and headfast determination to use and apply his gracious gift
to first the midterm and then onto the real world, this particular crime
is no different. Compromising of a small-knit group of aged and greedy
men, a syndicate based in Spain gave any aspiring criminal that had the
drive to do evil, the tools to jump start whatever fraudulent cyber
fraud they had/could conceive. This group gave the complete online
profiles of British citizens with excellent credit ratings (driving
licenses, bank statements, passports, and anything worth even knowing
about you) to over 11,000 random
criminals with the intension of aiding them in committing a crime. And
of the 11,000 premeditated cyber criminals that were successful in their
crime, the syndicate would request a 50% cut of the winnings in return
for continual use of the citizen’s account. Failure to comply would
result in the syndicate ruining the credit score of the unknowing
citizen thereby cutting off any further attempts at cyber crime by the
fraudster off at the knees. This method was how the syndicate aided
literally thousands of layman criminals in committing an exponentially
greater amount of cyber fraud, allowing them getting rich while not
lifting a single finger to do the dirty work.
“Web chat forums
were a key part of the site, providing clients with information, advice
and coaching them on how to use the profiles and commit fraud, said the
Metropolitan Police.”
This particular crime highlights the
online disinhibition effect on both sides of the cyber crime classroom.
Communicating with thousands of criminals with intensions of committing
cyber crime, the members of the syndicate felt comfortable enough to
even train their criminal pawns due to the invisibility and dissociative
anonymity given by the internet. Because they felt that dissociate
anonymity protected whoever they were talking to from ever finding out
who they were and that the invisibility complex lessened the worry and
suspicion caused by physical communication, these masterminds openly
teach and honed the strategies of their member-base. On the other side,
the gift of basically free lessons and training on cyber crime and the
chance to do so, most likely gave potential fraudsters a dissociative
imagination to the physical and mental boundaries of morality in the
real world. Here was a way to cheat the system handed to them in a
silver platter and all they had to do was take it and run with it. That
can be a powerful dissociative disinhibitory effect on a person who
before was surrounded by so many social dictations and suddenly found
himself with none.
Name: Kenneth Oetomo
Link: http://www.nbcnews.com/
In this particular crime, Hackers are able to infiltrate computers and
make the infected computers, or "botnets", obey some server to do its
bidding, which could be distributing viruses or attacking computer
networks. A particular botnet called Citadel has targeted some large
financial institutions such as Bank of America, or PayPal and have
stolen large amounts of money. Invisibility is probably the major
motivation for the criminals who set up Citadel as the article notes
that the hackers are most likely stationed outside of the US and only
target US companies to avoid local authorities. Invisibility is a great
cover for a crime as the criminals enjoy less likelihood of getting
caught and are able to do so in the comfort of their own homes.
Additionally, there is an unknown amount of conspirators. Although
invisibility is similar to dissociative anonymity, invisibility means
that the presence of the hackers are not known - people do generally not
know when their computers are being controlled by the botnets, whereas
dissociative anonymity only means that an online persona is not
associated with the actual person. In this case, the hackers do not even
want an online persona because the online persona may be able to be
linked to them.
As for the victims, the article notes that
Microsoft believes the victims to be those who have downloaded illegal
copies of its popular software. Victims also experience invisibility
because in general, only the server is allowed to see who downloads from
it. Generally, no one else will know if the victim downloaded the
software unless the victim starts noticing the virus. The victims
downloaded illegally because they did not think they would get caught
downloading the software.
Name: Edward Zhao
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/
As of recently, an anonymous drug king ping who called himself "Dread
Pirate Roberts" has been arrested, resulting in the collapse of The Silk
Road, an anonymous site that in a nutshell, was the eBay for illicit
drugs. Roberts, whose real name is Ross William Ulbricht, was the
administrator for the Silk Road. Although he used various encryption
schemes, his identity was eventually discovered and he was arrested in
the San Francisco Public Library.
The Silk Road is a concrete
example of the allures of dissociate anonymity. The very basis of its
existence is rooted in anonymity. First of all, to even find out how to
access the Silk Road, one had to rely on word
of mouth. It was only recently that Dread Pirate Roberts, perhaps in a
moment of hubris, published a site SilkRoadLink.com that details how to
access his site to the general public. Furthermore, to access the
website, one has to use the Tor network, a method of rerouting
connections to several different locations to conceal his or hers IP
address, and thus, location. Once in, transactions were completed using
Bitcoin, a currency which was heralded as a private and secure way to
transfer funds online. Besides the structure of the business, which was
built on anonymity, the administrator Roberts himself was also afflicted
by dissociate anonymity. For instance, he brazenly gave out an
interview (anonymously of course) saying he beat the state in its war of
drugs through technology. Imagine in the real world, if a drug dealer
told journalists about his business and how he subverts law enforcement.
It would be unheard of. Yet, because of the comforts provided by the
blanket of dissociate anonymity, it was possible for Roberts to do so.
Ultimately, for the time that it lasted, The Silk Road, and by
extension, Roberts, took advantage of dissociate anonymity to create a
marketplace for illegal drugs online, a business model that flourished
until it was busted by the FBI.
In 2011, a group of six Londoners were arrested over the theft of
almost 1 million pounds. They sent out emails to students seemingly
from their respective universities asking them to update their banking
information. The students were sent to a bogus website where their
information was saved and money was taken out of their accounts.
This is a example of the dissociate anonymity disinhibition that John
Suler writes about. In this example, the students were unable to verify
whether or not this email truly came from their school, an institution
which they trust. They trusted the email they received and ended up
paying the price for their trust. Because the senders of the email are
anonymous over the internet, they were able to scam the students.
This is also an example of the invisibility disinhibition. More than
likely, those arrested would have been unwilling, or unable to commit
such a crime face to face. From the internet they are able to cheat not
faces, not even names, but emails out of money. The lack of actually
seeing a person makes this crime more acceptable morally.
Name: Kenneth Do
Link: http://www.reuters.com/
On September 20, 2013, Eight men were arrested over the alleged theft
of $2.1 million. They committed this crime disguising themselves as
engineers and using a hardware device, took over one of Barclay's
computer system.
This crime is an example of the Invisibility
disinhibition effect described by John Suler. As mentioned earlier, the
eight men were first disguised as engineers. This was their physical
disguise, but it was actually their hacking that provided them the
greater sense of stealth. They were able to sneak in without catching
anybody's attention only due to the fact that their manipulation of
Barclay's computer system allowed them to seem. After successfully
hacking the system, the men knew they were going to be able to sneak in
and out of the bank undetected, as if they were invisible.
Name: Justine Law
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/
This article talks about two major bank robberies. In May of this year,
a group of hackers put their yearlong plan into action: pulling off a
$45 million ATM robbery. By overriding withdrawal limits on debit cards,
they were able to take out as much cash as they desired -- and it was
not limited to one country; it affected 27 countries. The other scam
that happened earlier this year scammed over 36,000 people (in real
life) by planting card reading devices in transaction terminals, later
using these codes and PIN numbers in order to make illegal purchases on
their own.
I think that this is an example of Dissociative
Anonymity. It can be compared to a group of robbers physically entering a
bank and causing a commotion - but with masks on. The idea that the
hacker cannot be easily singled out as a criminal could be a driving
force for this type of action. These crimes affect people on the other
end, but it only has positive effects for the hacker (until they are
caught). Similarly, the victims are also anonymous, and they are also
random. They are not singled out by the hacker, but they are victimized
randomly -- and they do not know they have been wronged until it is too
late.
In terms of dissociative anonymity, because the internet
provides a natural veil of anonymity, the traders had could have felt
they had nothing to be afraid of. The mask of anonymity meant that no
one would be able to find their true identities. However, this also
meant that they did not know who they were trading with or dealing with
on the other end; the very agencies that were tracking them could have
used this veil to their advantage while doing undercover work. The
internet’s characteristic of invisibility couples with the dissociative
anonymity to allow the traders to be brave in their illegal dealings.
This invisibility could have encouraged the business to make bigger
deals and expand their business more rapidly.
Finally, the
minimization of authority could have acted as a way for the businesses
to feel that the law enforcement bodies were not as powerful or capable
offline as online. This equalizing factor could have again encouraged
the businesses to be more expansive and extensive in their trades
because they were not afraid of being caught by an authority figure.
Name: Jenny Chen
Link: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/27/nation/la-na-nn-anonymous-koch-hack-20130327
Potentially facing several years of federal prison, a Wisconsin man named Eric J. Rosol is charged of assisting the group Anonymous with the destruction of Koch Industries' (an oil and manufacturing company) website. With the use of online chats, Rosol was able to spearhead the hunt in an anonymous fashion. The manner in which they brought down the website was by using a dedicated denial-of-service attack (DDOS), where users will continuously visit the website until it crashes. Some say that this was a form of overloading the website rather than hacking. Consequently, he was charged with 5 years of prison and a $250,000 fine.
The main reason as to why this situation would occur is due to the power of "invisibility." Originally thought to be anonymous, Rosol mistakenly didn't cover his tracks well enough as he didn't think of the consequences for his actions. Because he assumed to be invincible online, Rosol didn't take the time to research the specific repercussions - along with his other partners. Not only this, he was leading such a hunt in the comfort of his own home - safe and shielded from the police. His partners in crime weren't worrying about the dire effects of such a crime, so why should he?
Name: Eric Hsieh
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/
On June 22, a user named “Abidah” found out he lost 200,000 gold on his
World of Warcraft account. After investigation, Blizzard discovered
that the Auction House Web and mobile app had been hacked. In response,
Blizzard shut down the app the following day. To steal gold, the hackers
list cheap items on the Auction House asking for incredible high
prices. Then using players’ hacked accounts to buy those items, getting
the in-game-gold, which can be sold to other players for real money.
The most likely reason to motivate the criminal activity on online
games is invisibility described by Suler. In a hacker activity like
this, there is no way for the victim to know who the thief is, ie. the
hackers are invisible. On the other hand, Blizzard’s focus would be
fixing the application to prevent further hacking incidents and
compensating the victims. In reality, little actions are done to catch
the hackers due to the priority of the company and the difficultness to
track online connections. Since the risk of getting caught and the
potential punishment are low, the invisibility along with the factors
stated above motivates hacker activities on online games.
Name: Matthew Shong
Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Just how a professor lectures his/her class, arming them with the
knowledge and headfast determination to use and apply his gracious gift
to first the midterm and then onto the real world, this particular crime
is no different. Compromising of a small-knit group of aged and greedy
men, a syndicate based in Spain gave any aspiring criminal that had the
drive to do evil, the tools to jump start whatever fraudulent cyber
fraud they had/could conceive. This group gave the complete online
profiles of British citizens with excellent credit ratings (driving
licenses, bank statements, passports, and anything worth even knowing
about you) to over 11,000 random
criminals with the intension of aiding them in committing a crime. And
of the 11,000 premeditated cyber criminals that were successful in their
crime, the syndicate would request a 50% cut of the winnings in return
for continual use of the citizen’s account. Failure to comply would
result in the syndicate ruining the credit score of the unknowing
citizen thereby cutting off any further attempts at cyber crime by the
fraudster off at the knees. This method was how the syndicate aided
literally thousands of layman criminals in committing an exponentially
greater amount of cyber fraud, allowing them getting rich while not
lifting a single finger to do the dirty work.
“Web chat forums
were a key part of the site, providing clients with information, advice
and coaching them on how to use the profiles and commit fraud, said the
Metropolitan Police.”
This particular crime highlights the
online disinhibition effect on both sides of the cyber crime classroom.
Communicating with thousands of criminals with intensions of committing
cyber crime, the members of the syndicate felt comfortable enough to
even train their criminal pawns due to the invisibility and dissociative
anonymity given by the internet. Because they felt that dissociate
anonymity protected whoever they were talking to from ever finding out
who they were and that the invisibility complex lessened the worry and
suspicion caused by physical communication, these masterminds openly
teach and honed the strategies of their member-base. On the other side,
the gift of basically free lessons and training on cyber crime and the
chance to do so, most likely gave potential fraudsters a dissociative
imagination to the physical and mental boundaries of morality in the
real world. Here was a way to cheat the system handed to them in a
silver platter and all they had to do was take it and run with it. That
can be a powerful dissociative disinhibitory effect on a person who
before was surrounded by so many social dictations and suddenly found
himself with none.
In terms of dissociative anonymity, because the internet
provides a natural veil of anonymity, the traders had could have felt
they had nothing to be afraid of. The mask of anonymity meant that no
one would be able to find their true identities. However, this also
meant that they did not know who they were trading with or dealing with
on the other end; the very agencies that were tracking them could have
used this veil to their advantage while doing undercover work. The
internet’s characteristic of invisibility couples with the dissociative
anonymity to allow the traders to be brave in their illegal dealings.
This invisibility could have encouraged the business to make bigger
deals and expand their business more rapidly.
Finally, the minimization of authority could have acted as a way for the businesses to feel that the law enforcement bodies were not as powerful or capable offline as online. This equalizing factor could have again encouraged the businesses to be more expansive and extensive in their trades because they were not afraid of being caught by an authority figure.
Finally, the minimization of authority could have acted as a way for the businesses to feel that the law enforcement bodies were not as powerful or capable offline as online. This equalizing factor could have again encouraged the businesses to be more expansive and extensive in their trades because they were not afraid of being caught by an authority figure.
Name: Jenny Chen
Link: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/27/nation/la-na-nn-anonymous-koch-hack-20130327
Potentially facing several years of federal prison, a Wisconsin man named Eric J. Rosol is charged of assisting the group Anonymous with the destruction of Koch Industries' (an oil and manufacturing company) website. With the use of online chats, Rosol was able to spearhead the hunt in an anonymous fashion. The manner in which they brought down the website was by using a dedicated denial-of-service attack (DDOS), where users will continuously visit the website until it crashes. Some say that this was a form of overloading the website rather than hacking. Consequently, he was charged with 5 years of prison and a $250,000 fine.
The main reason as to why this situation would occur is due to the power of "invisibility." Originally thought to be anonymous, Rosol mistakenly didn't cover his tracks well enough as he didn't think of the consequences for his actions. Because he assumed to be invincible online, Rosol didn't take the time to research the specific repercussions - along with his other partners. Not only this, he was leading such a hunt in the comfort of his own home - safe and shielded from the police. His partners in crime weren't worrying about the dire effects of such a crime, so why should he?
Name: Eric Hsieh
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/
On June 22, a user named “Abidah” found out he lost 200,000 gold on his World of Warcraft account. After investigation, Blizzard discovered that the Auction House Web and mobile app had been hacked. In response, Blizzard shut down the app the following day. To steal gold, the hackers list cheap items on the Auction House asking for incredible high prices. Then using players’ hacked accounts to buy those items, getting the in-game-gold, which can be sold to other players for real money.
The most likely reason to motivate the criminal activity on online
games is invisibility described by Suler. In a hacker activity like
this, there is no way for the victim to know who the thief is, ie. the
hackers are invisible. On the other hand, Blizzard’s focus would be
fixing the application to prevent further hacking incidents and
compensating the victims. In reality, little actions are done to catch
the hackers due to the priority of the company and the difficultness to
track online connections. Since the risk of getting caught and the
potential punishment are low, the invisibility along with the factors
stated above motivates hacker activities on online games.
Name: Matthew Shong
Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Just how a professor lectures his/her class, arming them with the
knowledge and headfast determination to use and apply his gracious gift
to first the midterm and then onto the real world, this particular crime
is no different. Compromising of a small-knit group of aged and greedy
men, a syndicate based in Spain gave any aspiring criminal that had the
drive to do evil, the tools to jump start whatever fraudulent cyber
fraud they had/could conceive. This group gave the complete online
profiles of British citizens with excellent credit ratings (driving
licenses, bank statements, passports, and anything worth even knowing
about you) to over 11,000 random
criminals with the intension of aiding them in committing a crime. And
of the 11,000 premeditated cyber criminals that were successful in their
crime, the syndicate would request a 50% cut of the winnings in return
for continual use of the citizen’s account. Failure to comply would
result in the syndicate ruining the credit score of the unknowing
citizen thereby cutting off any further attempts at cyber crime by the
fraudster off at the knees. This method was how the syndicate aided
literally thousands of layman criminals in committing an exponentially
greater amount of cyber fraud, allowing them getting rich while not
lifting a single finger to do the dirty work.
“Web chat forums
were a key part of the site, providing clients with information, advice
and coaching them on how to use the profiles and commit fraud, said the
Metropolitan Police.”
This particular crime highlights the
online disinhibition effect on both sides of the cyber crime classroom.
Communicating with thousands of criminals with intensions of committing
cyber crime, the members of the syndicate felt comfortable enough to
even train their criminal pawns due to the invisibility and dissociative
anonymity given by the internet. Because they felt that dissociate
anonymity protected whoever they were talking to from ever finding out
who they were and that the invisibility complex lessened the worry and
suspicion caused by physical communication, these masterminds openly
teach and honed the strategies of their member-base. On the other side,
the gift of basically free lessons and training on cyber crime and the
chance to do so, most likely gave potential fraudsters a dissociative
imagination to the physical and mental boundaries of morality in the
real world. Here was a way to cheat the system handed to them in a
silver platter and all they had to do was take it and run with it. That
can be a powerful dissociative disinhibitory effect on a person who
before was surrounded by so many social dictations and suddenly found
himself with none.
Name: Matthew Shong
Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Just how a professor lectures his/her class, arming them with the knowledge and headfast determination to use and apply his gracious gift to first the midterm and then onto the real world, this particular crime is no different. Compromising of a small-knit group of aged and greedy men, a syndicate based in Spain gave any aspiring criminal that had the drive to do evil, the tools to jump start whatever fraudulent cyber fraud they had/could conceive. This group gave the complete online profiles of British citizens with excellent credit ratings (driving licenses, bank statements, passports, and anything worth even knowing about you) to over 11,000 random criminals with the intension of aiding them in committing a crime. And of the 11,000 premeditated cyber criminals that were successful in their crime, the syndicate would request a 50% cut of the winnings in return for continual use of the citizen’s account. Failure to comply would result in the syndicate ruining the credit score of the unknowing citizen thereby cutting off any further attempts at cyber crime by the fraudster off at the knees. This method was how the syndicate aided literally thousands of layman criminals in committing an exponentially greater amount of cyber fraud, allowing them getting rich while not lifting a single finger to do the dirty work.
“Web chat forums
were a key part of the site, providing clients with information, advice
and coaching them on how to use the profiles and commit fraud, said the
Metropolitan Police.”
This particular crime highlights the
online disinhibition effect on both sides of the cyber crime classroom.
Communicating with thousands of criminals with intensions of committing
cyber crime, the members of the syndicate felt comfortable enough to
even train their criminal pawns due to the invisibility and dissociative
anonymity given by the internet. Because they felt that dissociate
anonymity protected whoever they were talking to from ever finding out
who they were and that the invisibility complex lessened the worry and
suspicion caused by physical communication, these masterminds openly
teach and honed the strategies of their member-base. On the other side,
the gift of basically free lessons and training on cyber crime and the
chance to do so, most likely gave potential fraudsters a dissociative
imagination to the physical and mental boundaries of morality in the
real world. Here was a way to cheat the system handed to them in a
silver platter and all they had to do was take it and run with it. That
can be a powerful dissociative disinhibitory effect on a person who
before was surrounded by so many social dictations and suddenly found
himself with none.
“Web chat forums
were a key part of the site, providing clients with information, advice
and coaching them on how to use the profiles and commit fraud, said the
Metropolitan Police.”
This particular crime highlights the online disinhibition effect on both sides of the cyber crime classroom. Communicating with thousands of criminals with intensions of committing cyber crime, the members of the syndicate felt comfortable enough to even train their criminal pawns due to the invisibility and dissociative anonymity given by the internet. Because they felt that dissociate anonymity protected whoever they were talking to from ever finding out who they were and that the invisibility complex lessened the worry and suspicion caused by physical communication, these masterminds openly teach and honed the strategies of their member-base. On the other side, the gift of basically free lessons and training on cyber crime and the chance to do so, most likely gave potential fraudsters a dissociative imagination to the physical and mental boundaries of morality in the real world. Here was a way to cheat the system handed to them in a silver platter and all they had to do was take it and run with it. That can be a powerful dissociative disinhibitory effect on a person who before was surrounded by so many social dictations and suddenly found himself with none.
This particular crime highlights the online disinhibition effect on both sides of the cyber crime classroom. Communicating with thousands of criminals with intensions of committing cyber crime, the members of the syndicate felt comfortable enough to even train their criminal pawns due to the invisibility and dissociative anonymity given by the internet. Because they felt that dissociate anonymity protected whoever they were talking to from ever finding out who they were and that the invisibility complex lessened the worry and suspicion caused by physical communication, these masterminds openly teach and honed the strategies of their member-base. On the other side, the gift of basically free lessons and training on cyber crime and the chance to do so, most likely gave potential fraudsters a dissociative imagination to the physical and mental boundaries of morality in the real world. Here was a way to cheat the system handed to them in a silver platter and all they had to do was take it and run with it. That can be a powerful dissociative disinhibitory effect on a person who before was surrounded by so many social dictations and suddenly found himself with none.
Link: http://www.nbcnews.com/
In this particular crime, Hackers are able to infiltrate computers and
make the infected computers, or "botnets", obey some server to do its
bidding, which could be distributing viruses or attacking computer
networks. A particular botnet called Citadel has targeted some large
financial institutions such as Bank of America, or PayPal and have
stolen large amounts of money. Invisibility is probably the major
motivation for the criminals who set up Citadel as the article notes
that the hackers are most likely stationed outside of the US and only
target US companies to avoid local authorities. Invisibility is a great
cover for a crime as the criminals enjoy less likelihood of getting
caught and are able to do so in the comfort of their own homes.
Additionally, there is an unknown amount of conspirators. Although
invisibility is similar to dissociative anonymity, invisibility means
that the presence of the hackers are not known - people do generally not
know when their computers are being controlled by the botnets, whereas
dissociative anonymity only means that an online persona is not
associated with the actual person. In this case, the hackers do not even
want an online persona because the online persona may be able to be
linked to them.
As for the victims, the article notes that
Microsoft believes the victims to be those who have downloaded illegal
copies of its popular software. Victims also experience invisibility
because in general, only the server is allowed to see who downloads from
it. Generally, no one else will know if the victim downloaded the
software unless the victim starts noticing the virus. The victims
downloaded illegally because they did not think they would get caught
downloading the software.
Name: Edward Zhao
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/
As of recently, an anonymous drug king ping who called himself "Dread
Pirate Roberts" has been arrested, resulting in the collapse of The Silk
Road, an anonymous site that in a nutshell, was the eBay for illicit
drugs. Roberts, whose real name is Ross William Ulbricht, was the
administrator for the Silk Road. Although he used various encryption
schemes, his identity was eventually discovered and he was arrested in
the San Francisco Public Library.
The Silk Road is a concrete
example of the allures of dissociate anonymity. The very basis of its
existence is rooted in anonymity. First of all, to even find out how to
access the Silk Road, one had to rely on word
of mouth. It was only recently that Dread Pirate Roberts, perhaps in a
moment of hubris, published a site SilkRoadLink.com that details how to
access his site to the general public. Furthermore, to access the
website, one has to use the Tor network, a method of rerouting
connections to several different locations to conceal his or hers IP
address, and thus, location. Once in, transactions were completed using
Bitcoin, a currency which was heralded as a private and secure way to
transfer funds online. Besides the structure of the business, which was
built on anonymity, the administrator Roberts himself was also afflicted
by dissociate anonymity. For instance, he brazenly gave out an
interview (anonymously of course) saying he beat the state in its war of
drugs through technology. Imagine in the real world, if a drug dealer
told journalists about his business and how he subverts law enforcement.
It would be unheard of. Yet, because of the comforts provided by the
blanket of dissociate anonymity, it was possible for Roberts to do so.
Ultimately, for the time that it lasted, The Silk Road, and by
extension, Roberts, took advantage of dissociate anonymity to create a
marketplace for illegal drugs online, a business model that flourished
until it was busted by the FBI.
In 2011, a group of six Londoners were arrested over the theft of
almost 1 million pounds. They sent out emails to students seemingly
from their respective universities asking them to update their banking
information. The students were sent to a bogus website where their
information was saved and money was taken out of their accounts.
This is a example of the dissociate anonymity disinhibition that John
Suler writes about. In this example, the students were unable to verify
whether or not this email truly came from their school, an institution
which they trust. They trusted the email they received and ended up
paying the price for their trust. Because the senders of the email are
anonymous over the internet, they were able to scam the students.
This is also an example of the invisibility disinhibition. More than
likely, those arrested would have been unwilling, or unable to commit
such a crime face to face. From the internet they are able to cheat not
faces, not even names, but emails out of money. The lack of actually
seeing a person makes this crime more acceptable morally.
Name: Kenneth Do
Link: http://www.reuters.com/
On September 20, 2013, Eight men were arrested over the alleged theft
of $2.1 million. They committed this crime disguising themselves as
engineers and using a hardware device, took over one of Barclay's
computer system.
This crime is an example of the Invisibility
disinhibition effect described by John Suler. As mentioned earlier, the
eight men were first disguised as engineers. This was their physical
disguise, but it was actually their hacking that provided them the
greater sense of stealth. They were able to sneak in without catching
anybody's attention only due to the fact that their manipulation of
Barclay's computer system allowed them to seem. After successfully
hacking the system, the men knew they were going to be able to sneak in
and out of the bank undetected, as if they were invisible.
Name: Justine Law
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/
This article talks about two major bank robberies. In May of this year,
a group of hackers put their yearlong plan into action: pulling off a
$45 million ATM robbery. By overriding withdrawal limits on debit cards,
they were able to take out as much cash as they desired -- and it was
not limited to one country; it affected 27 countries. The other scam
that happened earlier this year scammed over 36,000 people (in real
life) by planting card reading devices in transaction terminals, later
using these codes and PIN numbers in order to make illegal purchases on
their own.
I think that this is an example of Dissociative
Anonymity. It can be compared to a group of robbers physically entering a
bank and causing a commotion - but with masks on. The idea that the
hacker cannot be easily singled out as a criminal could be a driving
force for this type of action. These crimes affect people on the other
end, but it only has positive effects for the hacker (until they are
caught). Similarly, the victims are also anonymous, and they are also
random. They are not singled out by the hacker, but they are victimized
randomly -- and they do not know they have been wronged until it is too
late.
In this particular crime, Hackers are able to infiltrate computers and
make the infected computers, or "botnets", obey some server to do its
bidding, which could be distributing viruses or attacking computer
networks. A particular botnet called Citadel has targeted some large
financial institutions such as Bank of America, or PayPal and have
stolen large amounts of money. Invisibility is probably the major
motivation for the criminals who set up Citadel as the article notes
that the hackers are most likely stationed outside of the US and only
target US companies to avoid local authorities. Invisibility is a great
cover for a crime as the criminals enjoy less likelihood of getting
caught and are able to do so in the comfort of their own homes.
Additionally, there is an unknown amount of conspirators. Although
invisibility is similar to dissociative anonymity, invisibility means
that the presence of the hackers are not known - people do generally not
know when their computers are being controlled by the botnets, whereas
dissociative anonymity only means that an online persona is not
associated with the actual person. In this case, the hackers do not even
want an online persona because the online persona may be able to be
linked to them.
As for the victims, the article notes that
Microsoft believes the victims to be those who have downloaded illegal
copies of its popular software. Victims also experience invisibility
because in general, only the server is allowed to see who downloads from
it. Generally, no one else will know if the victim downloaded the
software unless the victim starts noticing the virus. The victims
downloaded illegally because they did not think they would get caught
downloading the software.
Name: Edward Zhao
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/
As of recently, an anonymous drug king ping who called himself "Dread
Pirate Roberts" has been arrested, resulting in the collapse of The Silk
Road, an anonymous site that in a nutshell, was the eBay for illicit
drugs. Roberts, whose real name is Ross William Ulbricht, was the
administrator for the Silk Road. Although he used various encryption
schemes, his identity was eventually discovered and he was arrested in
the San Francisco Public Library.
The Silk Road is a concrete
example of the allures of dissociate anonymity. The very basis of its
existence is rooted in anonymity. First of all, to even find out how to
access the Silk Road, one had to rely on word
of mouth. It was only recently that Dread Pirate Roberts, perhaps in a
moment of hubris, published a site SilkRoadLink.com that details how to
access his site to the general public. Furthermore, to access the
website, one has to use the Tor network, a method of rerouting
connections to several different locations to conceal his or hers IP
address, and thus, location. Once in, transactions were completed using
Bitcoin, a currency which was heralded as a private and secure way to
transfer funds online. Besides the structure of the business, which was
built on anonymity, the administrator Roberts himself was also afflicted
by dissociate anonymity. For instance, he brazenly gave out an
interview (anonymously of course) saying he beat the state in its war of
drugs through technology. Imagine in the real world, if a drug dealer
told journalists about his business and how he subverts law enforcement.
It would be unheard of. Yet, because of the comforts provided by the
blanket of dissociate anonymity, it was possible for Roberts to do so.
Ultimately, for the time that it lasted, The Silk Road, and by
extension, Roberts, took advantage of dissociate anonymity to create a
marketplace for illegal drugs online, a business model that flourished
until it was busted by the FBI.
In 2011, a group of six Londoners were arrested over the theft of
almost 1 million pounds. They sent out emails to students seemingly
from their respective universities asking them to update their banking
information. The students were sent to a bogus website where their
information was saved and money was taken out of their accounts.
This is a example of the dissociate anonymity disinhibition that John
Suler writes about. In this example, the students were unable to verify
whether or not this email truly came from their school, an institution
which they trust. They trusted the email they received and ended up
paying the price for their trust. Because the senders of the email are
anonymous over the internet, they were able to scam the students.
This is also an example of the invisibility disinhibition. More than
likely, those arrested would have been unwilling, or unable to commit
such a crime face to face. From the internet they are able to cheat not
faces, not even names, but emails out of money. The lack of actually
seeing a person makes this crime more acceptable morally.
Name: Kenneth Do
Link: http://www.reuters.com/
On September 20, 2013, Eight men were arrested over the alleged theft
of $2.1 million. They committed this crime disguising themselves as
engineers and using a hardware device, took over one of Barclay's
computer system.
This crime is an example of the Invisibility
disinhibition effect described by John Suler. As mentioned earlier, the
eight men were first disguised as engineers. This was their physical
disguise, but it was actually their hacking that provided them the
greater sense of stealth. They were able to sneak in without catching
anybody's attention only due to the fact that their manipulation of
Barclay's computer system allowed them to seem. After successfully
hacking the system, the men knew they were going to be able to sneak in
and out of the bank undetected, as if they were invisible.
Name: Justine Law
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/
This article talks about two major bank robberies. In May of this year,
a group of hackers put their yearlong plan into action: pulling off a
$45 million ATM robbery. By overriding withdrawal limits on debit cards,
they were able to take out as much cash as they desired -- and it was
not limited to one country; it affected 27 countries. The other scam
that happened earlier this year scammed over 36,000 people (in real
life) by planting card reading devices in transaction terminals, later
using these codes and PIN numbers in order to make illegal purchases on
their own.
I think that this is an example of Dissociative
Anonymity. It can be compared to a group of robbers physically entering a
bank and causing a commotion - but with masks on. The idea that the
hacker cannot be easily singled out as a criminal could be a driving
force for this type of action. These crimes affect people on the other
end, but it only has positive effects for the hacker (until they are
caught). Similarly, the victims are also anonymous, and they are also
random. They are not singled out by the hacker, but they are victimized
randomly -- and they do not know they have been wronged until it is too
late.
In this particular crime, Hackers are able to infiltrate computers and
make the infected computers, or "botnets", obey some server to do its
bidding, which could be distributing viruses or attacking computer
networks. A particular botnet called Citadel has targeted some large
financial institutions such as Bank of America, or PayPal and have
stolen large amounts of money. Invisibility is probably the major
motivation for the criminals who set up Citadel as the article notes
that the hackers are most likely stationed outside of the US and only
target US companies to avoid local authorities. Invisibility is a great
cover for a crime as the criminals enjoy less likelihood of getting
caught and are able to do so in the comfort of their own homes.
Additionally, there is an unknown amount of conspirators. Although
invisibility is similar to dissociative anonymity, invisibility means
that the presence of the hackers are not known - people do generally not
know when their computers are being controlled by the botnets, whereas
dissociative anonymity only means that an online persona is not
associated with the actual person. In this case, the hackers do not even
want an online persona because the online persona may be able to be
linked to them.
As for the victims, the article notes that
Microsoft believes the victims to be those who have downloaded illegal
copies of its popular software. Victims also experience invisibility
because in general, only the server is allowed to see who downloads from
it. Generally, no one else will know if the victim downloaded the
software unless the victim starts noticing the virus. The victims
downloaded illegally because they did not think they would get caught
downloading the software.
Name: Edward Zhao
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/
As of recently, an anonymous drug king ping who called himself "Dread
Pirate Roberts" has been arrested, resulting in the collapse of The Silk
Road, an anonymous site that in a nutshell, was the eBay for illicit
drugs. Roberts, whose real name is Ross William Ulbricht, was the
administrator for the Silk Road. Although he used various encryption
schemes, his identity was eventually discovered and he was arrested in
the San Francisco Public Library.
The Silk Road is a concrete
example of the allures of dissociate anonymity. The very basis of its
existence is rooted in anonymity. First of all, to even find out how to
access the Silk Road, one had to rely on word
of mouth. It was only recently that Dread Pirate Roberts, perhaps in a
moment of hubris, published a site SilkRoadLink.com that details how to
access his site to the general public. Furthermore, to access the
website, one has to use the Tor network, a method of rerouting
connections to several different locations to conceal his or hers IP
address, and thus, location. Once in, transactions were completed using
Bitcoin, a currency which was heralded as a private and secure way to
transfer funds online. Besides the structure of the business, which was
built on anonymity, the administrator Roberts himself was also afflicted
by dissociate anonymity. For instance, he brazenly gave out an
interview (anonymously of course) saying he beat the state in its war of
drugs through technology. Imagine in the real world, if a drug dealer
told journalists about his business and how he subverts law enforcement.
It would be unheard of. Yet, because of the comforts provided by the
blanket of dissociate anonymity, it was possible for Roberts to do so.
Ultimately, for the time that it lasted, The Silk Road, and by
extension, Roberts, took advantage of dissociate anonymity to create a
marketplace for illegal drugs online, a business model that flourished
until it was busted by the FBI.
In 2011, a group of six Londoners were arrested over the theft of
almost 1 million pounds. They sent out emails to students seemingly
from their respective universities asking them to update their banking
information. The students were sent to a bogus website where their
information was saved and money was taken out of their accounts.
This is a example of the dissociate anonymity disinhibition that John
Suler writes about. In this example, the students were unable to verify
whether or not this email truly came from their school, an institution
which they trust. They trusted the email they received and ended up
paying the price for their trust. Because the senders of the email are
anonymous over the internet, they were able to scam the students.
This is also an example of the invisibility disinhibition. More than
likely, those arrested would have been unwilling, or unable to commit
such a crime face to face. From the internet they are able to cheat not
faces, not even names, but emails out of money. The lack of actually
seeing a person makes this crime more acceptable morally.
Name: Kenneth Do
Link: http://www.reuters.com/
On September 20, 2013, Eight men were arrested over the alleged theft
of $2.1 million. They committed this crime disguising themselves as
engineers and using a hardware device, took over one of Barclay's
computer system.
This crime is an example of the Invisibility
disinhibition effect described by John Suler. As mentioned earlier, the
eight men were first disguised as engineers. This was their physical
disguise, but it was actually their hacking that provided them the
greater sense of stealth. They were able to sneak in without catching
anybody's attention only due to the fact that their manipulation of
Barclay's computer system allowed them to seem. After successfully
hacking the system, the men knew they were going to be able to sneak in
and out of the bank undetected, as if they were invisible.
Name: Justine Law
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/
This article talks about two major bank robberies. In May of this year,
a group of hackers put their yearlong plan into action: pulling off a
$45 million ATM robbery. By overriding withdrawal limits on debit cards,
they were able to take out as much cash as they desired -- and it was
not limited to one country; it affected 27 countries. The other scam
that happened earlier this year scammed over 36,000 people (in real
life) by planting card reading devices in transaction terminals, later
using these codes and PIN numbers in order to make illegal purchases on
their own.
I think that this is an example of Dissociative
Anonymity. It can be compared to a group of robbers physically entering a
bank and causing a commotion - but with masks on. The idea that the
hacker cannot be easily singled out as a criminal could be a driving
force for this type of action. These crimes affect people on the other
end, but it only has positive effects for the hacker (until they are
caught). Similarly, the victims are also anonymous, and they are also
random. They are not singled out by the hacker, but they are victimized
randomly -- and they do not know they have been wronged until it is too
late.
In this particular crime, Hackers are able to infiltrate computers and
make the infected computers, or "botnets", obey some server to do its
bidding, which could be distributing viruses or attacking computer
networks. A particular botnet called Citadel has targeted some large
financial institutions such as Bank of America, or PayPal and have
stolen large amounts of money. Invisibility is probably the major
motivation for the criminals who set up Citadel as the article notes
that the hackers are most likely stationed outside of the US and only
target US companies to avoid local authorities. Invisibility is a great
cover for a crime as the criminals enjoy less likelihood of getting
caught and are able to do so in the comfort of their own homes.
Additionally, there is an unknown amount of conspirators. Although
invisibility is similar to dissociative anonymity, invisibility means
that the presence of the hackers are not known - people do generally not
know when their computers are being controlled by the botnets, whereas
dissociative anonymity only means that an online persona is not
associated with the actual person. In this case, the hackers do not even
want an online persona because the online persona may be able to be
linked to them.
As for the victims, the article notes that Microsoft believes the victims to be those who have downloaded illegal copies of its popular software. Victims also experience invisibility because in general, only the server is allowed to see who downloads from it. Generally, no one else will know if the victim downloaded the software unless the victim starts noticing the virus. The victims downloaded illegally because they did not think they would get caught downloading the software.
As for the victims, the article notes that Microsoft believes the victims to be those who have downloaded illegal copies of its popular software. Victims also experience invisibility because in general, only the server is allowed to see who downloads from it. Generally, no one else will know if the victim downloaded the software unless the victim starts noticing the virus. The victims downloaded illegally because they did not think they would get caught downloading the software.
Name: Edward Zhao
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/
As of recently, an anonymous drug king ping who called himself "Dread
Pirate Roberts" has been arrested, resulting in the collapse of The Silk
Road, an anonymous site that in a nutshell, was the eBay for illicit
drugs. Roberts, whose real name is Ross William Ulbricht, was the
administrator for the Silk Road. Although he used various encryption
schemes, his identity was eventually discovered and he was arrested in
the San Francisco Public Library.
The Silk Road is a concrete
example of the allures of dissociate anonymity. The very basis of its
existence is rooted in anonymity. First of all, to even find out how to
access the Silk Road, one had to rely on word
of mouth. It was only recently that Dread Pirate Roberts, perhaps in a
moment of hubris, published a site SilkRoadLink.com that details how to
access his site to the general public. Furthermore, to access the
website, one has to use the Tor network, a method of rerouting
connections to several different locations to conceal his or hers IP
address, and thus, location. Once in, transactions were completed using
Bitcoin, a currency which was heralded as a private and secure way to
transfer funds online. Besides the structure of the business, which was
built on anonymity, the administrator Roberts himself was also afflicted
by dissociate anonymity. For instance, he brazenly gave out an
interview (anonymously of course) saying he beat the state in its war of
drugs through technology. Imagine in the real world, if a drug dealer
told journalists about his business and how he subverts law enforcement.
It would be unheard of. Yet, because of the comforts provided by the
blanket of dissociate anonymity, it was possible for Roberts to do so.
Ultimately, for the time that it lasted, The Silk Road, and by
extension, Roberts, took advantage of dissociate anonymity to create a
marketplace for illegal drugs online, a business model that flourished
until it was busted by the FBI.
In 2011, a group of six Londoners were arrested over the theft of
almost 1 million pounds. They sent out emails to students seemingly
from their respective universities asking them to update their banking
information. The students were sent to a bogus website where their
information was saved and money was taken out of their accounts.
This is a example of the dissociate anonymity disinhibition that John
Suler writes about. In this example, the students were unable to verify
whether or not this email truly came from their school, an institution
which they trust. They trusted the email they received and ended up
paying the price for their trust. Because the senders of the email are
anonymous over the internet, they were able to scam the students.
This is also an example of the invisibility disinhibition. More than
likely, those arrested would have been unwilling, or unable to commit
such a crime face to face. From the internet they are able to cheat not
faces, not even names, but emails out of money. The lack of actually
seeing a person makes this crime more acceptable morally.
Name: Kenneth Do
Link: http://www.reuters.com/
On September 20, 2013, Eight men were arrested over the alleged theft
of $2.1 million. They committed this crime disguising themselves as
engineers and using a hardware device, took over one of Barclay's
computer system.
This crime is an example of the Invisibility
disinhibition effect described by John Suler. As mentioned earlier, the
eight men were first disguised as engineers. This was their physical
disguise, but it was actually their hacking that provided them the
greater sense of stealth. They were able to sneak in without catching
anybody's attention only due to the fact that their manipulation of
Barclay's computer system allowed them to seem. After successfully
hacking the system, the men knew they were going to be able to sneak in
and out of the bank undetected, as if they were invisible.
Name: Justine Law
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/
This article talks about two major bank robberies. In May of this year,
a group of hackers put their yearlong plan into action: pulling off a
$45 million ATM robbery. By overriding withdrawal limits on debit cards,
they were able to take out as much cash as they desired -- and it was
not limited to one country; it affected 27 countries. The other scam
that happened earlier this year scammed over 36,000 people (in real
life) by planting card reading devices in transaction terminals, later
using these codes and PIN numbers in order to make illegal purchases on
their own.
I think that this is an example of Dissociative
Anonymity. It can be compared to a group of robbers physically entering a
bank and causing a commotion - but with masks on. The idea that the
hacker cannot be easily singled out as a criminal could be a driving
force for this type of action. These crimes affect people on the other
end, but it only has positive effects for the hacker (until they are
caught). Similarly, the victims are also anonymous, and they are also
random. They are not singled out by the hacker, but they are victimized
randomly -- and they do not know they have been wronged until it is too
late.
As of recently, an anonymous drug king ping who called himself "Dread
Pirate Roberts" has been arrested, resulting in the collapse of The Silk
Road, an anonymous site that in a nutshell, was the eBay for illicit
drugs. Roberts, whose real name is Ross William Ulbricht, was the
administrator for the Silk Road. Although he used various encryption
schemes, his identity was eventually discovered and he was arrested in
the San Francisco Public Library.
The Silk Road is a concrete example of the allures of dissociate anonymity. The very basis of its existence is rooted in anonymity. First of all, to even find out how to access the Silk Road, one had to rely on word of mouth. It was only recently that Dread Pirate Roberts, perhaps in a moment of hubris, published a site SilkRoadLink.com that details how to access his site to the general public. Furthermore, to access the website, one has to use the Tor network, a method of rerouting connections to several different locations to conceal his or hers IP address, and thus, location. Once in, transactions were completed using Bitcoin, a currency which was heralded as a private and secure way to transfer funds online. Besides the structure of the business, which was built on anonymity, the administrator Roberts himself was also afflicted by dissociate anonymity. For instance, he brazenly gave out an interview (anonymously of course) saying he beat the state in its war of drugs through technology. Imagine in the real world, if a drug dealer told journalists about his business and how he subverts law enforcement. It would be unheard of. Yet, because of the comforts provided by the blanket of dissociate anonymity, it was possible for Roberts to do so. Ultimately, for the time that it lasted, The Silk Road, and by extension, Roberts, took advantage of dissociate anonymity to create a marketplace for illegal drugs online, a business model that flourished until it was busted by the FBI.
The Silk Road is a concrete example of the allures of dissociate anonymity. The very basis of its existence is rooted in anonymity. First of all, to even find out how to access the Silk Road, one had to rely on word of mouth. It was only recently that Dread Pirate Roberts, perhaps in a moment of hubris, published a site SilkRoadLink.com that details how to access his site to the general public. Furthermore, to access the website, one has to use the Tor network, a method of rerouting connections to several different locations to conceal his or hers IP address, and thus, location. Once in, transactions were completed using Bitcoin, a currency which was heralded as a private and secure way to transfer funds online. Besides the structure of the business, which was built on anonymity, the administrator Roberts himself was also afflicted by dissociate anonymity. For instance, he brazenly gave out an interview (anonymously of course) saying he beat the state in its war of drugs through technology. Imagine in the real world, if a drug dealer told journalists about his business and how he subverts law enforcement. It would be unheard of. Yet, because of the comforts provided by the blanket of dissociate anonymity, it was possible for Roberts to do so. Ultimately, for the time that it lasted, The Silk Road, and by extension, Roberts, took advantage of dissociate anonymity to create a marketplace for illegal drugs online, a business model that flourished until it was busted by the FBI.
In 2011, a group of six Londoners were arrested over the theft of
almost 1 million pounds. They sent out emails to students seemingly
from their respective universities asking them to update their banking
information. The students were sent to a bogus website where their
information was saved and money was taken out of their accounts.
This is a example of the dissociate anonymity disinhibition that John
Suler writes about. In this example, the students were unable to verify
whether or not this email truly came from their school, an institution
which they trust. They trusted the email they received and ended up
paying the price for their trust. Because the senders of the email are
anonymous over the internet, they were able to scam the students.
This is also an example of the invisibility disinhibition. More than
likely, those arrested would have been unwilling, or unable to commit
such a crime face to face. From the internet they are able to cheat not
faces, not even names, but emails out of money. The lack of actually
seeing a person makes this crime more acceptable morally.
Name: Kenneth Do
Link: http://www.reuters.com/
On September 20, 2013, Eight men were arrested over the alleged theft
of $2.1 million. They committed this crime disguising themselves as
engineers and using a hardware device, took over one of Barclay's
computer system.
This crime is an example of the Invisibility
disinhibition effect described by John Suler. As mentioned earlier, the
eight men were first disguised as engineers. This was their physical
disguise, but it was actually their hacking that provided them the
greater sense of stealth. They were able to sneak in without catching
anybody's attention only due to the fact that their manipulation of
Barclay's computer system allowed them to seem. After successfully
hacking the system, the men knew they were going to be able to sneak in
and out of the bank undetected, as if they were invisible.
Name: Justine Law
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/
This article talks about two major bank robberies. In May of this year,
a group of hackers put their yearlong plan into action: pulling off a
$45 million ATM robbery. By overriding withdrawal limits on debit cards,
they were able to take out as much cash as they desired -- and it was
not limited to one country; it affected 27 countries. The other scam
that happened earlier this year scammed over 36,000 people (in real
life) by planting card reading devices in transaction terminals, later
using these codes and PIN numbers in order to make illegal purchases on
their own.
I think that this is an example of Dissociative
Anonymity. It can be compared to a group of robbers physically entering a
bank and causing a commotion - but with masks on. The idea that the
hacker cannot be easily singled out as a criminal could be a driving
force for this type of action. These crimes affect people on the other
end, but it only has positive effects for the hacker (until they are
caught). Similarly, the victims are also anonymous, and they are also
random. They are not singled out by the hacker, but they are victimized
randomly -- and they do not know they have been wronged until it is too
late.
This is a example of the dissociate anonymity disinhibition that John Suler writes about. In this example, the students were unable to verify whether or not this email truly came from their school, an institution which they trust. They trusted the email they received and ended up paying the price for their trust. Because the senders of the email are anonymous over the internet, they were able to scam the students.
This is also an example of the invisibility disinhibition. More than likely, those arrested would have been unwilling, or unable to commit such a crime face to face. From the internet they are able to cheat not faces, not even names, but emails out of money. The lack of actually seeing a person makes this crime more acceptable morally.
Name: Kenneth Do
Link: http://www.reuters.com/
On September 20, 2013, Eight men were arrested over the alleged theft
of $2.1 million. They committed this crime disguising themselves as
engineers and using a hardware device, took over one of Barclay's
computer system.
This crime is an example of the Invisibility
disinhibition effect described by John Suler. As mentioned earlier, the
eight men were first disguised as engineers. This was their physical
disguise, but it was actually their hacking that provided them the
greater sense of stealth. They were able to sneak in without catching
anybody's attention only due to the fact that their manipulation of
Barclay's computer system allowed them to seem. After successfully
hacking the system, the men knew they were going to be able to sneak in
and out of the bank undetected, as if they were invisible.
Name: Justine Law
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