Swatting Hack

A swatting hack refers to when a person hacks into another person’s phone and calls 9-1-1, reporting a fictitious emergency. Although computers and smartphones play a fundamental role in the lives of people today, including providing access to the Internet, they also present access points for fraud, thievery, privacy violations, and other harms. One of the earliest forms of harm was to “hack” people’s computers to access personal information, such as credit card and Social Security numbers, addresses, and banking materials. This was only the beginning of privacy violations via the Internet. Over time, hacking has evolved along with all aspects of computing, usually ahead of efforts to halt or slow it, leading to serious threats to privacy. Swatting hacks are just one type of ...