“After my laptop was stolen, hackers leaked private photos”

When hackers threatened to leak nude photos stored on a filmmaker’s stolen laptop, she turned the camera on herself and documented her ordeal.

In 2019, Spanish director Patricia Franquesa was sitting in a cafe in Madrid when a thief stole her laptop.

Three months later, hackers contacted her demanding money and threatening to leak her private photos stored on the device if she didn’t pay.

Franquisa wasn’t sure – and still doesn’t – whether the person who tried to blackmail her was the same person who stole the laptop.

But in circumstances over which the victim had little control, Franquisa was able to document the entire incident on film from her perspective.

The result is My Sextortion Diary, which has just screened at the Sheffield Documentary Festival.

“Making documentaries was my way of gaining some control and power,” Franquisa told BBC News. “It’s my way of protecting myself, rather than hurting myself and taking me out of society, which is like building a bubble.”

The distance provided by shooting the film was valuable and helped her process what was happening. “Of course it’s still me, but I need to separate myself. I’m talking about ‘Patti,’ but Patty is the character, Patty is the director.”

She joked that such an ordeal “happens to people who make documentaries, so it’s very appropriate, so it’s a perfect opportunity for transformation.” [the cameras] About”.

For an entire generation who grew up online, taking, storing and sending nude photos is completely normal.

But it opens up a world of risks that no one born decades ago has ever faced.

“My father took a picture of my mother, and she was in a bathing suit, which was probably a little see-through,” Franquisa smiles, remembering an era that seemed tame by comparison. “But since the digital world has come to us, it’s a new way for us to have intimate relationships.”

In her case, hackers leaked some of the images to her friends, family and colleagues through her social media contacts, demonstrating their seriousness.

But Franquisa does make some progress as the film progresses. Police wrote to her to tell her they had arrested her after examining the cafe’s CCTV footage – which she eventually caught herself and included in the film.

It shows how three men, whose faces are blurred in the film, take laptops and work together in different locations in the cafe.

But while the police investigation is ongoing, the hackers continued their attempts to blackmail her.

Exhausted, out of options, and refusing to pay, Franquisa ultimately decided to upload the images to her own social media—a horrific last resort, but one that takes away the power from the hackers.

“It was hard, I cried,” she recalled. “It felt like the last moment of a marathon. I didn’t want to post a photo, I was hoping and waiting for this guy to stop, and you see he didn’t, so I had nothing to do.”

However, stopping the hackers isn’t her only motivation. “I should have said, ‘Hey, contact, this hacker has these photos and he’s using my contact, help me’.”

This shifted the balance of power somewhat, meaning Franquisa could recruit her friends and followers to help piece together a picture of the hacker and his actions.

“This changes the formula,” she said. “I would like my contact to tell me when they receive the photos because then I will have more evidence to submit to the police and continue the investigation.

“It broke the stigma,” she recalled. “Other people’s attempts to shame me were thwarted because I had pictures of myself. And then it magically stopped.”

The fact that the hackers stopped contacting Franquisa shortly after she uploaded the image suggests that they were already on her trail when she switched her account to private after the first extortion attempt, but she Still don’t know who it is.

The documentary has been well received at film festivals where it has been screened. Mark Adams of Business Doc Europe describes it As “a powerful and provocative real-life story that presciently reflects on the unfortunate realities faced by those who are forced to deal with the horrific actions of unscrupulous hackers”.

A man who stole a laptop was eventually jailed. But for Franquisa, the main concern wasn’t the laptop itself, but the way her own data was subsequently used against her.

“He was sentenced to 10 months in prison simply for stealing a computer. I managed to say in the judge’s sentence that he was linked to possible blackmail,” she explained.

Franquisa’s focus has since turned to raising awareness of what happened and asking questions about how these criminal networks operate.

“I told the police, that guy [who stole the laptop] Know what he did with the computer. The police told me the computer would not be recovered and I said, “I know that, but what are they doing with the stolen equipment?”

“Because there are a lot of mafia now. In Spain, you steal devices and sell them, and then they go to the people who hack into the devices and get the data, find things and start extorting money. I want to understand what this system is”.

She pointed out: “It’s not only about justice in my case, because it’s over for me, but also about letting the police know what happens in these types of cases. What is the system of these mafia? If I am as A police officer, I would be very curious.

The biggest challenge was how to make a film with so little material. Franquisa could only record her own story, and most developments took place through written exchanges — hacker emails, police letters or messages between Franquisa and her friends.

The director “didn’t see that as a limitation” as the film was intended to be a “digital diary.”

Hackers are represented by digitally altered female voices, while text conversations are represented by digital speech bubbles that mimic WhatsApp threads.

But “it was this form of storytelling that allowed the film to be released in a tight time frame and prevented it from being popular.” points out Blake Williams of HyperReal Movie Club.

“My Sextortion Diary is always fascinating and finds a way to keep the narrative moving despite its unconventional approach.”

The documentary ends before the verdict is announced, as Franquisa laughs and says, “We need to wrap up in time for South by Southwest!” – the film festival where the film is showing in March. She said some new text would now be added at the end following the conviction.

Franquisa ultimately hopes the film helps bring about change, as she feels the law isn’t changing fast enough to keep up with crime.

“I want to say loud and clear that the laws around our data are not working. The systems we need to protect are moving slowly. There is a question here of what protections we have.

“The only satisfying thing about this case is that we’re talking about it now, and the ending of the film is bittersweet. Patty succeeded in making the film, but hacking and justice are incomplete.”

She concluded: “I hope my case helps people understand what [criminals] What I’m doing, I’m putting myself at the forefront so they can look at my case and help other people.