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Why we all should worry about the Mo Twister video scandal

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9VVP3lu38s]

I know you’re all wondering why I’m blogging about the recent scandal that rocked the nation. Yes, I’m pertaining to the video that every one is talking about. Mo Twister’s video, titled RepairedMovie.Mov, was uploaded by a certain prettyjenny55 to the video sharing website YouTube.

The video runs for 13:24 minutes. It basically showed Mo Twister talking to himself through a video recording device, seemingly distraught and was even crying. The audio was barely audible but a transcript was included in the page as well.

In the video, DJ Mo was talking about his relationship with actress Rhiann Ramos and that he got her pregnant. He mentioned that they were about to do something horrible and that he knows they will regret it for the rest of their lives. According to DJ Mo, the video was shot in Singapore early last year when they went there to have an abortion.

I must admit I was shocked when I heard that this video truly exist and of course, I was a bit curious on what it contains because it received mixed reactions from the public.

What started out as mere curiosity and intrigue became alarm and fear when I actually watched the video. In my opinion, the video has gone viral because it is a controversy involving two showbiz personalities, fueled by DJ Mo’s statement that they were going to have an abortion.

In a Catholic country like the Philippines, this subject is downright taboo, so naturally, the public was outraged that they were willing to kill an innocent baby for the sake of their careers.

Mo Twister repeatedly accused Rhiann’s home network, GMA7 of pressuring her to maintain a squeaky clean image that forced her to have this last resort.

It is not clear who really uploaded the video. Based on her profile page on the website, user PrettyJenny55 joined YouTube last Nov. 28, 2011 and has only uploaded one video, that of Mo Twister.

DJ Mo said that the video must have been retrieved from one of his laptops, which he sold earlier. Some people believe that DJ Mo was the one who uploaded the video  and that he created a dummy account just to get back at Rhiann for their previous break-up. I really don’t care much about their relationship drama. What I am concerned about is if it’s true that someone did retrieve his deleted files, then IT CAN ALSO HAPPEN TO ALL OF US.

With the controversies surrounding the viral video, I don’t know if any of you noticed the security implications of what happened. I realized that deleted files can still be retrieved easily. I searched the net if this was possible, and came across several sites that have tutorials such as cgsecurity.org and the likes of diskinternals.com which offer data recovery software that can do the job. I even read in Wikipedia that this sort of thing is very much possible.

I’m really not a tech-savvy person. My nose bleeds when I read all the technical mumbo jumbo on the net on how to retrieve files. I must admit that I fear for the security of my own files in my own devices. What if my laptop got stolen or I had it fixed in a computer repair shop? I have documents like scanned IDs, passports and other personal documents saved in my computers. What if someone takes away my data, even the deleted ones, and use it as his own? What if they use my identification to pose as me and commit a crime, or access my money? The list of worries goes on.

We must be vigilant in protecting our identifies. The world is becoming high-tech. We are living a fast-paced life. We should also consider that criminals are also upgrading themselves in terms of their modus operandi.

Criminal-minded IT persons can also do computer forensics on your device without you knowing it. They can easily recover all your data and use it for crime. Not only our personal information become vulnerable. We must all be careful with the types of files we save in our computers, especially sensitive ones. Everything is possible. You wouldn’t want to embarrass yourself and be the next star of a controversial picture or video, do you?

Up until now, I’m still searching for a way to properly secure my files. If you’re an IT expert and want to share your knowledge on how to protect files, please share it with me here.