People Who Shared Jennifer Lawrence Nude Photos ‘May Face Prosecution’

Jennifer LawrenceThe reaction to the leaking of nude photos of celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, was awful. Some put the blame on the victims and others shared liberally with disgusting comments. But in this new world of social media the law is always being rewritten and much like dealing in physical stolen property is a criminal act, sharing hacked photos is too. Representatives for Lawrence have already said that they will sue anyone who shares or hosts the stolen pictures.

“Retweeting your way to prosecution: Jennifer Lawrence scandal could result in a wave of prosecutions” Duncan Lamont, Partner in the Reputation Management team at Charles Russell LLP, commented:

“An individual found to be sharing, retweeting, or providing a link to material that has been hacked, could face the full force of the law. People syndicating and sharing hacked celebrity nude photos, which in the latest incident allegedly purports to feature a host of A-listers, could find themselves in serious trouble, whether here or abroad. The republication of obviously private material is a breach of privacy law, constitutes misuse of private data and is a copyright law issue. Individuals linking and sharing this material could even be prosecuted for conspiracy or obscene publication, which are criminal offences. Social media users searching for this material may want to question the morality of viewing stolen images, while those sharing them may face serious legal repercussions. People should avoid ‘retweeting their way to prosecution’. It can happen – just look at those who joked about bombing airports or tweeted information about ongoing jury trials.”

5 Tips To Keep Your Computer Secure

slipup1) Have an antivirus. You will need antivirus software. This is the best thing you can do for your computer. It will block viruses and stop you losing all of your data, or having your identity stolen through your data on your computer. Make sure your antivirus is scheduled to download updates and does a daily scan of your computer.

2) Keep your hard drive clean. There is software you can download to do this. Check out Cleaner. Also try and keep your digital life tidy. Go through your computer and delete things you do not need anymore. You can run a disk cleanup to remove temporary, unnecessary files. You can also run disk defragment about once a month. You do not need to overdo it.  Remember to empty the trash too.

3) Be careful what you download. If you are unsure then do not download anything. If someone sends you a link with nothing else in the body of the email, or just a link on Twitter or Facebook, then do not click on it. They have probably been hacked and the link will not be genuine. Be aware that the link will be designed to get you to click on it. For example it might say ‘check out this funny picture of you’. Don’t believe it and don’t click.

4) Use a secure website brower. I am a Mac person and use Firefox (you can also use Firefox on a PC) or Safari. For windows Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.

5) Set up a Firewall. Firewalls control the information that goes in and out of your computer. This is essential for keeping out hackers. They also prevent Malware. PCs and Macs come with a basic Firewall installed so make sure it is turned on.

And finally….

Have a good, strong password.

What do you do to protect your computer and make it secure?

 

 

Kelvin MacKenzie: I Was Hacked.

Kelvin MacKenzie has described how he felt after learning his phone was hacked by the News of the World. MacKenzie was writing in this week’s edition of The Spectator (out tomorrow)

MacKenzie, who is the former editor of The Sun, insisted he will not sue his former employer.

MacKenzie says he was invited to meet officers from the Met’s phone-hacking inquiry Operation Weeting because his name and private details were found in notebooks belonging to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

He said:

We went into a large empty room where the sergeant produced a tatty binder with my name down the side. By this time I was beginning to sweat. At that moment I would have even coughed to voting for Blair in 1997.

There was a dramatic pause as the sergeant opened up the binder. Sheet one had my name on it with a number by the side. Was it mine? Yes it was. The next page was more interesting. It had the pin code used to access my phone’s voice mails.

Up to this moment I had always believed that the pin codes of mobiles were 0000 or 1111 and that’s why it was so easy to crack. But no. In my case it was something like 367549V27418. That surely must kill the idea that the hackers guessed or blagged the number — they must have had inside help from the phone networks.

MacKenzie was going though a divorce and admitted that the experience made him feel ‘queasy’

He elaborated:

In any event, I won’t be taking News International’s money. That would be a betrayal of the many happy years I spent there, plus I have a sense that to pocket the cash — and one lawyer was anxious for me to know that it would be tax free, always attractive — would be to indicate I thought Rupert Murdoch would ever have turned a blind eye to the hackings.

I have an advantage over you. I know Rupert Murdoch and I know he would have gone ballistic at the very thought of such actions. At 81 he may be old but he’s not daft. I should be so daft.
Still, I do reflect that in those 60 minutes I spent with the two police officers by Putney Bridge that my previous hostile attitude to the hacked stars had changed forever. As has my pin number.