2014 Miss Teen USA, Cassidy Wolf, launched a cybercrime awareness campaign after being a victim of computer hacking and extortion. A high school classmate, Jared James Abrahams, gained access to her computer’s webcam and “sextorted” her with private photos taken without her knowledge — many while she dressed/undressed in her room. “I was hysterical, scared, violated & had NO IDEA what to do,” she wrote on Facebook. “This person had control over all my accounts and was threatening to post pictures of me changing onto my social media accounts,” Wolf explained at the time. Her allegations and an ensuing investigation led to Abrahams’ arrest last year. At the conclusion of his trial, Abrahams was sentenced to 18 months in prison on charges of extortion and computer hacking. It’s estimated that he gained access to more than 150 computers over two years; after taking over his victims’ social media accounts pages, he’d hack their webcams and turn them on remotely. This is where the “sextortion” began. He would then let his victims know of one way (and only one way) they could avoid their photos being made public: sending over more naked shots. In some cases, he also asked for “performances” over Skype.¹

You may be asking yourself, is this something I should be concerned about? You know who’s concerned about this? Mark Zuckerberg and most digital security professionals. Mark Zuckerberg is the owner of the largest social media company in the world. He can afford the best web safety professionals and security technology, but he puts tape over his laptop’s camera and microphone.

According to a 2013 report in tech news site Ars Technica, sites ...