Signal
When the person on the other side of the network suddenly typed his real name, Wang Lei said that his brain went blank for a second unconsciously, and then he was angry, "Who calls my real name on the Internet without knowing any measure?".”
He quickly went through his list of friends, including a former colleague he hadn't spoken to in more than a year, and finally confirmed that the person across from him was a complete stranger. He reacted, "I've been unboxed." ”
On November 17, 2023, Station B reported a case of "human flesh unboxing" involving more than 40 people, and the main activists were two minors, and many people knew about this online black talk for the first time. This is actually synonymous with doxing plus online violence, which usually happens after arguments and conflicts, but sometimes, it can be just to "have fun" by opening the box. A game streamer once heard the abuser say, "You play games to kill time, and we are the same, you know." ”
Wang Lei and the stranger did not have much contradiction. The two were in the same photography group, one day, the stranger sent a screenshot of the link to the photographic equipment, and Wang Lei followed with two sentences, to the effect that photography is really expensive. Five minutes later, strangers threw out his real name in the group. Wang Lei didn't understand how he offended people, so he could only warn, "Don't expose other people's information on the Internet." The other party replied, "It's just a name, it's nothing, it's just for entertainment." ”
The next day, Wang Lei was angry and found an opportunity to squeeze two sentences in the group. The other party was furious, and threw out Wang Lei's mobile phone number, slandering that this was a sex worker's ***
Many people remember the moment when their message was thrown out, usually starting with a name, this message is subtle, it does not cause much substantial harm, but it can be a clear signal of intrusion into offline life. "I feel like the wall between online and offline has been broken," said 22-year-old Tan, "and I'm so scared and helpless." ”
Screenshot of the message sent by fans to Xiao Tan to be unboxed. Courtesy of the narrator.
Half a year ago, Xiao Tan was traveling abroad, and a person who claimed to be a fan added her WeChat, saying that she had been opened, and someone was spreading her ID card**, and published a series of her personal privacy information, including her name, mobile phone number, Weibo ID, courier address, and student status information.
Xiao Tan was a virtual anchor at the time, carrying out live broadcast activities with a cute two-dimensional image. She likes this identity, "My online activities are carried out on avatars, and they have nothing to do with me as a real person. "As soon as the computer is turned off, all the communication on the network stops there. But this seems to be more likely to arouse the curiosity of some people, Xiao Tan said, virtual anchors are the hardest hit area to be unboxed.
She once watched that netizens dug up the real people of each virtual anchor, put the puzzle on the post bar, and commented and scored arbitrarily. "They like to poach people under the skin of virtual anchors, and sometimes they use it as a way to show off, such as being proud that they know the information about the anchor and no one else knows. ”
Xiao Tan's ** was PS into all kinds of terrifying ghost pictures, and one of her friends' mobile phone was leaked, and she received several waves of crazy text messages bombardment and harassment. But what worries Xiao Tan the most is that everything on the Internet will affect her real life.
On the day she received her fan's WeChat, she immediately ended her trip and called the police, "I don't know how many people have received this message, my family and friends don't know that I have another avatar on the Internet, and I'm afraid that this matter will spread further." ”
Human flesh opening is called "box**" by some people, and it is regarded as a kind of network**, which can easily provoke people's sense of fear. 24-year-old Hu Yuan quarreled with a stranger in the game group, and that night, the person added him QQ, "He said my name, and then the phone." He received a lot of harassing text messages, and in the past year, he has turned on the strange text messages and call interception function. And what finally prompted Hu Yuan to call the police was, "He said that he could still find out more about me and wanted to open my family's box." ”
Information business
Wang Lei posted his experience in the photography group, which was a post bar against human flesh unboxing, but the theme of most of the posts was: Which big guy can help me open the box?Or, I'm being threatened, do you want to turn back?
Wu Cheng, who has been engaged in game risk control work, is not surprised by this kind of phenomenon, and he used to be mainly responsible for "preventing and controlling the risk of black industry behavior in the game field", such as some black industry organizations will directly hack game manufacturers, or steal the information of core players in the game, and send them targeted marketing content.
In many adversarial multiplayer games, he has seen too many cases of "opening the whole family" without saying a word. Wu Cheng explained that this kind of game often produces scolding wars between guilds and guilds, and there are restrictions in the game, and scolding too much may be banned. Players jump out of the rules of the game, do not swear, but check the other party's real information, check the loopholes, then you have to open the box, "If someone is fired from public office, the other party can directly say that you are waiting, and I will write a report letter to your unit." ”
Where there is demand, there is business. Wu Cheng said that there have been people in the game guild group who have been doing box-opening business for many years, "These organizations often come to me after a dispute and say, I can provide box-opening services." They even take business on both sides. "It's a complete industrial chain.
On an overseas social software, you can search for a large number of black industry organizations engaged in human flesh unboxing, and each piece of information is clearly marked: 300 yuan can find a mobile phone number, 400 yuan can provide personal credit records, and 1000 yuan can present a house opening record.
And the basis of the existence of the chain is simple, because there is too much information and data leakage.
Lu Shenglong, head of Qingteng Cloud Security Wugou Lab, mentioned a concept called "social work database", in which social workers refer to social engineering, which is a common way to obtain information in network security attack and defense. "As long as everyone goes online, they will leave all kinds of information, including mobile phone numbers, ** post bars, Weibo, etc., and the Internet has a variety of user data leaks, hackers collect and sort out this information into one database after another, which is called the social work database. ”
To give a simple example, in 2019, a number of ** reported a data breach on Weibo, and a dark web user posted a "53.8 billion Weibo users bind their mobile phone number data, of which 17.2 billion with basic account information" transaction notification, priced at $1,388. If a Weibo account was registered before 2019 and bound to a mobile phone, then it is very likely that the social worker database will be able to find this account, as well as the mobile phone, email address and other information bound behind it.
In the same way, according to ** reports, QQ, takeaway platforms, e-commerce**, and even the company's human resources department have all suffered information leaks, so your number, takeaway address, courier information, and student status can be found on one social worker database after another.
On an overseas social software, the information unboxing price list sent by the black industry organization. Photo by Li Xiaofang.
Lu Shenglong, who has 10 years of experience in cybersecurity, pointed out that an ordinary person does not need to be skilled in hacking, "You just need to find a social worker database platform that provides this kind of search service, enter a mobile phone number or QQ number, and it can automatically retrieve information such as names and addresses." There is a very big correlation between Internet traces, for example, I use your mobile phone number to search, and I can find your bound Weibo and email. ”
So doxing is actually not difficult for ordinary people, the only threshold is whether you want to do it or not. Lu Shenglong concluded.
This puts everyone at risk of being unboxed. Xiao D, a girl studying in college in the south, once met an anchor on a live broadcast platform, hoping that the other party could be a game companion or substitute training. The anchor also showed the image of a "caring big brother" in front of her, taking the initiative to greet and care every day, and actively responding to every message of Xiao D. But soon, Xiao D learned from other fans that she was specially screened out.
The anchor can use a small program software to accurately query high-spending users, and only needs the platform ID to check her every consumption record on the live broadcast platform, and can even be accurate to which day, on which platform, and how much money was spent for which anchor. From the very beginning, Xiao D's information has been exposed like opening a box.
But it is difficult for you to eliminate similar things by changing your mobile phone number and registering a new account, because the speed of updating data in the industrial chain is faster than you think. In May 2022, he received an email from a stranger with his name, ID number, address, and his ID card**. However, at that time, he had just reapplied for an identity card, and he himself had not even received it.
It's hard to have real privacy on the internet. Lu Shenglong said that there are too many ways to leak data, "the more common ones are some from hacker attacks, and the other part is internal ghost leakage within the enterprise." ”
The Shenzhen Network and Information Security Industry Association took stock of the data leakage incidents in 2023 and mentioned that before Double 11, more than 10 billion Chinese e-commerce order data was on the dark web**, and the data contained the user's real name, order number, product name, mobile phone number, address and other privacy information.
In 2022, the Chengdu Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision notified typical cases of "ten fields", including a first-class police officer from a police station who illegally inquired about citizens' personal information such as vehicle registration and household registration to others, and obtained illegal gains of 550,000 yuan.
In the human flesh unboxing organization group on overseas social software, a "hero recruitment order" is often issued, saying that "in order to improve the customer query experience, find the following channel personnel", and the staff of the express delivery, bank, and public security system are their favorite inquiry personnel.
Be part of the "box".
After receiving the message from the fan, the virtual anchor Xiao Tan immediately went to the police station where he traveled to report the crime, "At that time, they told me that this was a violation of the criminal law, but advised me to go back to the place where I was registered to report the crime." Back in his hometown, Xiao Tan reported the case again, "The police in my hometown told me that now personal privacy information is leaked too easily, and this matter is not a case at all." ”
Xiao Tan tried to explain that the other party obtained his information through illegal means, "I want to emphasize the seriousness of this. However, the police still showed a helpless expression, "They said that I can only be more careful in this situation, and even told me that I can go to check the person who posted the information and go to his household registration to file a case." ”
But this is unrealistic," Xiao Tan's tone was very frustrated, "The account they use may be on the Internet, as far as I know, opening the box is also forming an industrial chain, and you can open all the information of a person by giving money, I don't know the source at all."
In September 2023, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Punishing Violations and Crimes of Online Violence in Accordance with Law", which mentions that organizing doxing, illegally collecting and publishing citizens' personal information, where the circumstances are serious and meet the requirements of Article 253-1 of the Criminal Law, is to be convicted and punished as the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information.
However, in terms of specific implementation, according to the judicial interpretation, the criterion for determining the seriousness of the circumstances is that the illegal gains are more than 5,000 yuan, or the illegal acquisition or provision of more than 5,000 pieces of citizens' personal information. One of the criteria for determining especially serious circumstances is that the victim was killed or seriously injured. Therefore, it is actually difficult to determine that the act of opening a box of human flesh triggers criminal liability.
Hu Yuan, 24, also went to the police station to report to the police, but the result was that "there was insufficient evidence to file a case." Hu Yuan said that he was actually mentally prepared, "This matter is too small, and he really didn't cause me substantial harm." ”
He tried to consult a lawyer online, but the lawyer told him that the cost of filing a lawsuit starts at 5,000 yuan, and the litigation process is very long, and he still needs to get the real name information of the other party before he can file a case. Hu Yuan felt that he could not afford to spend this time and energy.
Xiao Kong, 27, may be an exception among the victims who reported the crime. He is a player of a large mobile game, and since 2021, some people have carried out large-scale human flesh opening for gamers, anchors, secondary creators, etc., "I know almost 300 people. Xiao Kong also called the police, ** gave him the same reply as everyone else, "They said they knew the situation, but they couldn't deal with it." ”
The turning point came at the beginning of 2022, Xiao Kong recalled that an up owner with millions of followers decided to take the lead in filing a lawsuit, "He has been very active in resisting since he was unboxed, inviting other victims to preserve evidence and sue together." The UP master and members of the game strategy team also sued the platform, got the real-name information of the perpetrator, and successfully filed a case. Since then, he has assisted ** in contacting more than 50 victims, and Xiaokong is one of them.
In November 2023, the Ministry of Public Security released 10 typical cases of punishing online violence in accordance with the law, and the case in which Xiaokong participated was among them. The report stated that the four suspects had been subjected to criminal coercive measures.
It is the collective defence of so many people that proves how widespread the adverse effects of this act are. Another key reason for the success of the lawsuit is that the game company also provides legal assistance to players, adding: "There are a lot of laws that you can't understand if you ask us ordinary people to read them." ”
In most victims' accounts, defending rights is like fishing for the moon in water. More people have to give up. As a result, to some extent, "anti-opening" seems to be the quickest way to solve the problem. Someone asked in the post bar, I was unboxed, the other party added my QQ, sent my name, **, is it useful to call the police?Someone replied at the bottom: There is a high probability that it will not be accepted. You also have his QQ number, drive back.
A gamer also shared a human flesh unboxing that he had watched, which was a trumpet that suddenly appeared, because he was disgusted with a game, and began to open the box indiscriminately.
The matter was finally resolved in an absurd way of "defeating magic with magic" - someone in the group found a professional open-box organization and turned the other party away. After learning that his information was also made public, the other party directly canceled his account and ran away. The abuser becomes the "victim" in an instant.
"Cyber Case".
Hu Yuan, who was unboxed, admitted that for a moment he wanted to "drive back", and "I was very angry when I watched him scolding my family and threatening my text messages." At that time, I wanted to prevent him from being afraid. ”
But Hu Yuan didn't take that step in the end, but just took the interception software and put his phone on silent. After a few days, the other party stopped all harassing behavior and did not send curse text messages again. Hu Yuan realized, "What he can drive may be my name and mobile phone, saying that he wants to check my family's information, he doesn't have the ability, and he won't be willing to spend money." "Things seem to have settled down like that.
Later, other victims who encountered human flesh opening came to him for help, and the advice he gave was: leave it alone, block him, leave the group, and after a while they will lose interest. "You really can't do anything else. Hu Yuan said calmly.
And Xiao Tan chose to suspend his virtual anchor career and quit the network. Xiao Tan still remembers that when the police told her that they couldn't do anything, she stood there for a while, "I don't know what I should do next." Her tone was a little desperate.
Quitting the net was the best solution she could think of later, "I am two personalities online and in real life. I don't want to be noticed by a lot of people, my home address is flying all over the sky, ** and I am being pegged into a very scary look, and I may even be picked up for what I said a long time ago. ”
She didn't know if that decision had played a role, but the abusers didn't divulge her personal information further. But now, she is still like a frightened bird, afraid that "my friends in real life will search for my avatar and know that I still have this experience, even if they come to comfort me, I will feel very uncomfortable". And every time he brushes up on the news that an anchor has been opened by human flesh again, Xiao Tan said that he will always feel a chill behind his back, "This seems to be my cyber case." ”
Is it still possible for this open Pandora's box to be closed?"It's hard. Wu Cheng said, "No one's information is safe." Based on his own experience in risk control in the black and gray industry, Wu Cheng proposed that the best way to protect personal information is to "completely separate online and offline." For example, playing games, surfing the Internet, logging in to social platforms, all accounts related to online social networking, use a mobile phone account, and use another identity for online shopping, takeaway, etc. Online anonymity is more likely to suffer from unidentified malice, and it is almost impossible for ordinary people to defend their rights, and isolation from offline will at least not affect normal life. ”
Cybersecurity practitioner Lu Shenglong's advice is not to use an ID that is too unique: "When a person wants to access your information, the first thing he sees is your screen name. If your screen name is unique, or has obvious personal characteristics, such as ID with a string of numbers, it may be easy to detect whether it is your birthday, QQ number, etc. He pointed out that the ID "momo" that is now all over the Internet is a relatively effective and low-cost way to protect personal information, "It is not so easy for others to distinguish your account." ”
In the past month, the Cyberspace Administration of China has launched a special action of "Clear and Clear, Rectification of Internet Anger", announcing that nationwide, focusing on key platform types such as social networking, short broadcasting, and live broadcasting, will resolutely crack down on and severely punish the behavior of "Internet toilets" and "opening boxes and hanging people" in accordance with the law. Some open-box groups have been disbanded, and social worker database file checking robots on overseas social software have also suspended access to new users.
Mr. Wang said that the stranger who leaked his name and mobile phone number was eventually banned by the administrator of the photography group for a month. The other party didn't speak again, and he also apologized privately, thinking that he was too impulsive. The matter ended peacefully. However, just half a month ago, when he posted a post about the incident, someone sent him a private message to ask, "Do you want to open it?".”
The other party told him that he could help him open the box by paying the money. Wang Lei refused, "I'm not interested." The other party scolded, "You deserve it." ”
Wang Lei thought about it and felt that he still needed to advise the other party. He typed, "If someone asks you to open a box, you should guide them correctly." Click Send. A red exclamation mark pops up, and the system prompts, "The other party rejects your private message." ”