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"Thanks to an 'end of life' vulnerability, almost anyone can kill you off digitally; you could virtually kill off a boss-from-hell or an ex. Imagine the nightmare of trying to get an official ID then. The virtual birthing process is even easier to exploit, according to Chris Rock's 'I will kill you & birth you' presentation at Def Con 23."
The presentation goes on to describe how to acquire a doctor's identifying information, register on a state's Electronic Death Registration System, fill out a death certificate, register to become a funeral director, and then complete the death certificate documents.
There are many possible motivations for 'virtually killing' someone: financial gain, exacting revenge, and hindering someone else:
[More after the break.]
"You could be dead right now and not even know it," Rock said. A person who has been virtually killed might not know about it until they apply for a passport or driver's license. And trying to reverse it doesn't mean a person could for sure. An example included a man who was declared legally dead but was an alive, roaming alcoholic; an Ohio judge said the law in his state would not allow a death to be reversed after three or more years had passed. "I don't know where that leaves you, but you're still deceased as far as the law is concerned," the judge told the man. Rock quoted the judge as stating, "Even though you're sitting here in my courtroom, I see you, you're alive, you seem to be in good health, the law restricts me from reversing the prior finding of death."
Virtual birthing is even easier; just register the birth as a midwife or as the result of a home birth. The resultant shell/shelf baby could be used in a number of ways:
In Rock's book, he explained "The Baby Harvest" as a "concept of a criminal syndicate: making and raising virtual babies to adulthood to be put on the shelf for money laundering, fraud and drug and firearm importation." Rock said eventually the fake babies could be harvested, as in 'killed off,' at investment maturity.
Although shelf babies would be a long-term investment, they have the most benefits as those "virtuals" could borrow millions of dollars, launder money, take out life insurance policies, buy guns and drugs, or be sold. Virtual identities could also be used to enhance anonymity; if a person were to use TOR or a VPN, use bitcoin to make payments, yet still end up getting busted...the trail would supposedly lead back to a virtual person who never existed in real life in the first place.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2015, @09:31AM
So that person is now legally dead, irreversibly. So can that person still be punished for any crime he or she does? I mean, normally you cannot punish the dead, right? Also, if you have sex with a legally dead, but biologically alive person, does that count as necrophilia? And is killing a legally dead person still murder?
On the other hand, if you digitally kill someone, from a legal point of view, you caused his death. Is it therefore murder in the sense of the law? May you face death penalty for it, in places where death penalty is still used? Or maybe digital death penalty?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2015, @09:53AM
101
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2015, @09:57AM
should've probably explained that: a digital LOL
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2015, @02:22PM
As a dead person, you would probably have no protections under the law either.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 10 2015, @04:55PM
The dude has become trans-minority! He's now a black man, about to be shot in the back by the police in the name of being "tough on crime".
Insert joke here about the law only existing to protect the rich from the poor and the corporation from the individual, that doesn't sound funny because its the truth as implemented.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Monday August 10 2015, @02:34PM
I mean, normally you cannot punish the dead, right?
No, but its quite legal to bury them in an airtight box or burn them, and your donor card doesn't expire on death, so I wouldn't try to get too clever (some of these options might need extra paperwork but I'm sure the hacker who "killed" you could sort that).
More realistically, I suspect that certain judges would suddenly think of ways to revoke a 3-year-old death certificate if the "deceased" had embarked on an unlife of crime.
(Score: 1) by m2o2r2g2 on Wednesday August 12 2015, @12:39AM
So one person needs to martyr themselves so that judges get off their collective behinds and uphold the spirit of the law rather than the letter.