Olvido Hormigos is the case that changed the Penal Code regarding the distribution of sexual videos without consent, the councilor, her video, and her resignation… these words will sound familiar because we woke up to this news this morning… now it’s time to analyze it and consider the work that forensic experts must do, a job of pure and hard Cyber Investigation.
The resignation of Olvido Hormigos Carpio after an erotic video featuring her was distributed. The former councilor was a victim in 2012 of the distribution of an intimate video. The case went unpunished, but its impact was decisive in changing the law regarding this type of crime…
The PSOE councilor submitted her resignation as councilor this morning, the reason being personal matters, meaning that the town already knew about the existence of the video on the Internet, but it had not spread, but now it has come to public light…
Opinions have quickly emerged, some strongly in favor and others strongly against the resignation. To begin with, Esperanza Aguirre has commented on the matter, offering her support and stating that she would also consider resigning as councilor if an erotic video starring herself were made public without her permission.
This reminds us somewhat of the broadcast of [as Sergio correctly indicates] the episode “The National Anthem” from Black Mirror, a British miniseries of 3 episodes aired on Channel 4, created by Charlie Brooker. Black Mirror
Black Mirror is a short film that describes a more developed situation than the current one, but in which new technologies revolve around personal-erotic coercion involving a political relationship between a group of terrorists and the public, televised kidnapping of the British princess…
Returning to today’s topic… my question is whether it is grounds for a councilor to resign when someone has taken it upon themselves to distribute and make public private content, even more so intimate content… From my point of view, everyone can do what they consider appropriate, obviously not publicly, because that’s what public figures are for, so that when they are exposed, they do so with rigor.
In this case, it is an attack on privacy, and very likely also involves theft of private content, and furthermore, non-consensual distribution. Now it is the turn of digital forensic experts to follow the trail and pull back the curtain on social engineering to ultimately identify who found it and made it public.
Once again, we find ourselves at the intersection between the breach of information security and the vulnerability of our privacy and the attack on our personal reputation, another application of cyber investigation.
