David Beckham’s Exposed Emails Exemplify Shame Hacking Threat

Hackers have obtained David Beckham’s embarrassing emails from his advisors in an extortion plot in which the advisors were told “pay up or we’ll release emails,” according to a recent news report. When the advisors refused to pay the £1million demand, the hackers released the emails.

This is yet another example of what I call shame hacking, a topic that I have explained in several other posts and news appearances. Shame hacking is the use of hacked data for embarrassing or extorting people by threatening to expose such compromising data if they do not comply with the demands made of them.

Shame hacking is one more way that cyber criminals have learned to monetize the fruits of their criminal actions and represents an increasing trend for how hacked information can and will be used for many ways.

This is just the beginning folks, hang on for the ride!

Here are the prior posts that I mentioned earlier:

• PORN, POLITICS & CYBERSECURITY: ARE WE SEEING SHAME HACKING WITH TEXAS ELECTOR?
• BRAZZERS PORN HACK: MORE THAN JUST ACCOUNT HOLDERS EXPOSED
• YOU COULD SEE THIS ONE COMING: VIBRATOR COMPANY SUED FOR TRACKING USAGE
• YAHOO DATA BREACH – SOME FACTS & QUESTIONS (I.E., WAS IT REALLY THE RUSSIANS?)
• #SONYHACK: WILL EXECUTIVES’ EMBARRASSING EMAILS BETTER MOTIVATE CYBERSECURITY CHANGE?

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Shawn Tuma (@shawnetuma) is a business lawyer with an internationally recognized reputation in cybersecurity, computer fraud, and data privacy law. He is a Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Partner at Scheef & Stone, LLP, a full-service commercial law firm in Texas that represents businesses of all sizes throughout the United States and, through its Mackrell International network, around the world.