Читать книгу Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling - Kenneth S. Pope - Страница 19

After a full day of Zoom and Facebook sessions with her clients, Dr. Soo sits down at the computer to update her clinical files, making sure all the notes, billing information, digital copies of the day’s Zoom and Facetime sessions (recorded with the full informed consent of her clients), and other records are current. She turns on the computer and … nothing. Just a blank screen. That’s never happened before. Wait: A message scrolls into view:

Greetings, Dr. Soo! I was able to hack into your computer—obviously!—and copy all your files. Yes, even your video files, which I found quite interesting. I even accessed those files you stashed in the cloud as backups. Your passwords weren’t much of a challenge for my software and finding your key to unencrypt your encrypted files was something I did while multitasking. I left your files on your computer, but I used a much more sophisticated program to encrypt them so that you can’t access them.

I’ll bet you’re upset, even angry, but you needn’t be. All can be set right as rain in just a step or two. All you need do is deposit $25,000 U.S. in bitcoin into the account specified at the bottom of the page within 72 hours, I’ll send you the key that will unencrypt your files, and you’ll never hear from me again.

Easy, isn’t it? A simple quid pro quo.

Oh, one more thing, Dr. Soo. What if you don’t pay within 72 hours? What if you think you don’t even need to pay because you’ve got another copy of all your records hidden somewhere on a disk that is not connected to the internet and so inaccessible to me and my merry band of fun-loving rascals? Well, you should know that were I not to receive the bitcoin within 72 hours—and I have full confidence you won’t let that happen—unencrypted copies of all your files will start appearing on all sorts of anonymous websites, and your clients and all others in your address book will receive notification along with links to some of those websites.

In closing, allow me to wish you well, Dr. Soo, especially next Tuesday, where I see in your scheduler and notes you’re expected to testify as an expert witness on the clinical records you reviewed and the tests you administered. It would be such a shame if the judge and attorneys in that case were to be notified before you testified that you had guarded the confidentiality of all those records so well that they were now available for all to see on a whole array of websites. Bet that would lead to an interesting cross-examination? Might even lead to a little chat with the licensing board.

Bye-bye, doc! And thank you for making me feel so welcome. No two-factor identification when signing in to your computer, no ransomware protection, not even a virtual private network when you connect to the internet. I felt you were inviting me in.

To avoid having her clients’ records and videos flashed across the web, Dr. Soo manages to get together $25,000 by emptying her savings and borrowing the rest, and sends off the bitcoin under the deadline. However, the files are never returned to her—They show up on a variety of anonymous websites. Several clients sue.