Personal Digital Security

What if there were a well-liked celebrity? A charming, award-winning, attractive, respected, popular, bright, young actress. A woman who had commanded the appreciation of those who populate the web, and of those who decide which news, journalistic or social, is seen by the masses.

What if this attractive young woman was attacked by violating her personal digital security? What if there were people who worked very hard to attack her personal information? What if these criminals uncovered, and stole her intimate details; who shared private photos taken for herself or sent to lovers?

What if the victim were so admired that most people felt bad that this had happened? What if the patriarchal people felt like they needed to protect this young woman?

There might be people who sympathized with her as a target for any number of reasons. They might think of how they would feel if they or their loved ones had been violated. They might think of the large or small ways that they had been exposed and embarrassed.

What if they didn’t care about this violation of others? What if they think that this victim deserved it? What if they thought they would never be that dumb or blind, that they wouldn’t put themselves at risk? Might they still think of this person when they were setting up their own digital security?

What if the story was spread around so that people all over the world were talking about it?

That might just be the thing to cause people to think of personal digital security as a necessity rather than an inconvenience. That might be just the thing to cause people all over the world to take it seriously.

Or maybe, a few weeks later, it would be forgotten.