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Looking at this from outside the US, this just looks like homophobia. This guy did nothing wrong, and now he is fired. Would a straight victim of hacking be treated in the same way?

I’m guessing Arkansas is also lacking in non-discrimination laws – it’s a pitty ENDA did not get through the legislature.

Yes a straight person would have been fired. I can think of of one particular example in my Country, a Female teacher who featured as a partially nude model in a mens magazine in her own time, she was fired as a result of parent’s complaints. This had nothing to do with the school.

Besides which, this is the US we’re talking about, violence is fine but consensual sex is an abomination, so being gay had nothing to do with it. Such a very very weird country.

It’s up to this guy to record his intimate life on video, but he should be a little more cautious about leaving this kind of things online, no matter if it’s under a “protected” account. Things that shouldn’t be published, much better keep them safe in your drawer, or even better, don’t keep them at all.

Good old victim blaming – never takes long.

Isn’t cybersecurity all about victim blaming?

I hold nothing but malice toward the perpetrator, but thing like this will keep happenning if people don’t learn from the victim’s mistakes at the same time.

As a security professional, anyone who uploads something incredibly personal to the internet like this needs to realize there is ALWAYS a chance that something like this could happen. By uploading the sensitive data you, whether knowingly or unknowingly, are subjecting yourself to the possibility people will see it outside of whom you intended.

Even better – don’t create such a content!
This is not the first, and certainly, not the last case when a private picture/video is leaked through whatever means, including the alleged hacking.

It is like forgetting to put on your pants and then blaming those who look at you…..except that he did not FORGET…..he did intentionally…..unless he is claiming rape.

I was just in shock that, oh, my God, this is something that will impact my career, impact my life, and what am I going to do?

here’s a clue…..don’t do the film.

He did create the video intentionally, but he didn’t post it on the school website intentionally, did he?

I assume you are sometimes naked in your own home (like when taking a shower), if I snuck in a took a photo of you and posted it in your workplace, would it be my fault or your fault?

I feel sorry for the person taking the hit to his career, but, if you put anything on the internet at all, you should always expect it to become public. Inventions, photos, documents, chats, databases.
All internet storage dropbox/googledox are a fools safe, because they aren’t.

I doubt the school board would have acted differently had the sex tape been of a heterosexual teacher and a woman. Why is it automatically a ‘hate crime’ only if a homosexual is involved?

I’m assuming the “hate crime” aspect is because the crook didn’t just steal the data but deliberately used it in a way calculated to get the guy in trouble, potentially ruin his career, screw up his life, etc. In other words, over and above the computer hacking crimes, a “hate crime” law would take into account what the crook did with the data that was stolen, and why. It needn’t have been a sex tape. Could have been anything done with the intention of causing some sort of injury to the other person.

(I think this is the reason that in some countries, truth alone is not a defence against libel. Statements must be true *and in the public interest*.)

I agree that the school board’s decision probably would have been the same if the teacher was heterosexual. However, there’s nothing “automatic” about it being classified as a hate crime. Refer to the definition of a “hate crime” and you’ll see that it was. The fact that his folder was renamed with the ugly “F” word makes it quite clear.

It is very unfortunate that the victim lives in Arkansas. Attitudes there, as with the rest of the southern USA tend to be very harsh with respect to sexual minorities.

I see a lot of people that I know taking breath-taking risks with their privacy in cyberspace. Additionally, their passwords are generally weak and often re-used. Their attitude is that this type of stuff will never happen to them, as cyberspace is vast and no one is interested in their stuff.

What’s more likely? He was “hacked” or he left a shared work computer logged into Gmail and or Dropbox?

More likely he was hacked. On Bray’s website he shows how his account was accessed from someone in Gainesville, FL.

Adults can have sex. Adults can move pictures online privately. He was hacked. Private stuff got leaked. What he did is not illegal or even irresponsible. Why doesn’t the school stand with the teacher and support him during this violation of his privacy? Instead, they fire him. Makes no sense. You can deal with issues like this. The schools reaction is condemning his legal, adult activities. I’d show up to school the next day, explaining that yes, just like every single one of your parents, I have sex too. Unfortunately my private pictures of this were stolen and shared online. Yes, I’m and adult, I do those things. . . OK, open your books to page 25, were going to learn about the Pythagorean theorem. The teachers administrators are acting like 12 year olds.

my only comment is that the headline is incorrect… bray’s dropbox account was not hacked… it was illegally accessed… it was his gmail account that was hacked… that all from the details given in the article…

I think it’s OK to talk about “Y was hacked” when what happened is that “X was hacked and as a result of information retrieved, Y was subsequently hacked too.”

If I picked the lock on your front door, searched your house from top to bottom and found the hidden keys to your safe, then opened the safe and stole the contents…

…I think you’d say, “Someone broke into my safe!”

actually, no… because i know better… i’ve seen folks leave a phone or computer unlocked and then claim that someone “”hacked”” it when nothing of the sort was done… someone else just walked over and did something on it… no hacking involved… if the safe was drilled and busted open, then sure, “someone broke into my safe” but if they found and used the keys or the combination, that’s no breakage…

FWIW: i’m from the old school where hacking was a special talent used to recover access to corporate systems when the previous admin left no documentation with the passwords or they maliciously changed them right before the door hit them where the $deity split them… today’s use of the term is atrocious and doesn’t represent the real activity that hacking truly is or was…

It’s all very well those who are IT professionals and others who are suitably informed criticising the victims in these stories (and it has become somewhat of a trend), but not everyone sees the security implications with what they assume are personal and secure accounts.

People are so attached to their phones (rightly or wrongly) and even if they think they’ve used a good password often they haven’t. Without getting everyone who uses IT to think like someone in IT security there needs to be a radical change by the security experts as to how we secure information/access and not leave it so much to the users.

I’d like to see devices use other features, such as Iris scan, fingerprint scan, voice recognition, face recognition etc far more frequently or have it as a default security setting. That way the user wouldn’t have think of having to remember anything like a password if they are not particularly good at it.

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