Gay Extortion

For my adult life I have always been a replicator, never an originator. As Oscar Wilde stated " Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

My computer skills are similar, I nearly failed "Fortran" and "BASIC" programming during my college years. Thanks to the folks that created the internet, and write software for bloggers I can now join the legions on the web.

After a string of gay cyber social site linked killings Father Tony warned us once of inviting men into our homes for hook ups. He labeled such conduct the "Gay Death Wish" He was correct.

Now the BBC is reporting that a Porn Virus malware can copy a persons web history. After the criminals burglarize a computer's content they contact the owner with a vile threat. " Pay up and buy our clean up removal program" or we will post your private web history for the world to see.

Because most of us including myself are replicators we have to "trust" the others whether it's a website, car mechanic, lawyer, physician and other trust based professions and institutions. However as we have seen from the greed on Wall Street, corrupt elected officials, the Y2-K scare and social net working cites, criminals are lurking everywhere.

For our community in which many of us have more robust, varied and progressive views of sexuality a public posting of a persons cyber history could cause personal and professional destruction. As what may be normal in our community would be viewed as "deviate" by many others. ( hypocrisy not withstanding)

We are still in the infancy of the web,GOOGLE" pulling out of China because of cyber crimes and spying by a repressive regimes are a bold reminder. That yes the web is awesome but like driving on a highway when you enter you assume risk. When you drive and surf the web every click could result in a virus, malware, and now this public extortion. Scary stuff.