Cybersecurity authorities warn of rising social media extortion

Cybersecurity authorities in Sri Lanka and Ghana are raising alarms over the rise of social media extortion and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.

In Sri Lanka, the Computer Emergency Readiness Team (Sri Lanka CERT) issued an urgent warning regarding blackmail schemes. Perpetrators often use fake profiles to build trust and engage victims in sensitive conversations to obtain compromising material. This material is then used to demand money under the threat of public exposure. Authorities urge citizens to avoid sharing sensitive content with unverified individuals and to report incidents to the Sri Lanka Police Cybercrime Division.

In Ghana, officials are highlighting the legal protections provided by the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038), which imposes penalties for sextortion and revenge porn. To combat the spread of such content, victims are encouraged to use StopNCII.org. This platform utilizes hashing technology to create digital fingerprints of intimate images on a user's device, allowing participating tech companies like Meta, Google, and TikTok to detect and remove the content without the original images ever leaving the user's device.