A disturbing trend has emerged involving racist text messages sent to young Black Americans, with a recent incident occurring in Central Florida. A 13-year-old girl, Autumn McKnight, received a message at dance practice that shockingly informed her that she had been "selected to pick cotton" and included her in a so-called "plantation group," as reported by WESH. The distressing text arrived with an area code of 407, igniting concerns over how the senders obtained personal information about minors, specifically about their racial identity.
Autumn's mother, Kim Keller, vocally condemned the text and expressed her grave concerns about the racial targeting of her daughter and others. As per FOX 35 Orlando, Keller stated that at least a dozen of Autumn's classmates received similar texts, asking, "My first thought was how do they know who you are?" Keller asked. "How did they get your information?" This incident has not stood alone, as people across the country have been receiving variations of this same racist message, raising questions about the breadth and source of the data being misused.
Expert in cyber intelligence Matt Aubin of Southern Recon Agency weighed the situation. He highlighted the need for a substantial database of information to conduct such targeted attacks. "The depth of information to do this by knowing a phone number and coordinating that with a minor and their race, gender, everything they have, that’s actually some deep information," Aubin said during an interview, as reported by FOX 35 Orlando. Surmising the information could stem from a data breach or have been harvested from data aggregators, Aubin pointed out that such actions likely constituted multiple cyber-crimes, potentially punishable by up to 20 years under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
