Security News Cyber Tormentor Leaves a Trail That Lands Him 17.5 years

[upnorth]

Content source

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/10/10/cyber-tormentor-leaves-a-trail-that-lands-him-17-5-years/

He, along with others he’d recruited into his cyberstalking campaign, sent lewd pictures of pre-pubescent females to her mother, her former roommate, and two former college classmates. They sent messages encouraging her to kill herself and threatening to rape and/or kill her and her friends. They posed as her and contacted somebody to claim that she’d killed the animal she was pet sitting, triggering a confrontation with police.

They pretended to be her roommate and her mother and called in over 120 hoax bomb threats to schools and residences. They broke into her iCloud account, laptop and iPhone to steal her photos; videos; and medical, psychological, and sexual history. They pieced it all together in a collage and sent it to hundreds of people, including her roommates, co-workers, 13-year-old sister, parents, parents’ work colleagues, and former teachers and school administrators. They put up bogus profiles of her on adult sites and directed interested men to her home address. She said that three men, unknown to her, showed up. The main cyberstalker behind all this thought the IP address-anonymizing TOR service would protect him. He thought virtual private networks (VPNs) would hide him. He also seemed to put his faith in anonymous overseas texting services and overseas encrypted email providers that don’t respond to law enforcement and/or don’t maintain IP logs or other records.

On Friday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the man conducting this cyberstalking campaign has been sentenced to 17.5 years in prison and 5 years of supervised release.

 

[vtqhtr413]

What a tangled web they weave, fascinating post

 

[Weebarra]

17½ years for scum creeps like this is nowhere near enough. He is a danger to everyone, not just women, girls and children but absolutely anyone and everyone. I would slap a lifetime ban on him from even going near any sort of electronic device for life when he is released. People like him make me feel sick at the the untold damage him and his "friends" have caused.

 

[509322]

Every time I see someone being fanatical about privacy and anonymity on the forums, I will refer them to this case.

It is like I have always said... one cannot remain private and anonymous using VPN, browser extensions, TOR, etc when they are targeted. What keeps you private and anonymous is to stay off the radar in the first place.

The privacy nuts will reply "Well, I'm not a criminal." :X3: As if that has anything to do with VPN, TOR, privacy services, etc to keep one private or anonymous.

 

[upnorth]

Lin had good cause to try to hide his tracks, but fortunately for the FBI, he did a terrible job at it. When investigators got access to his Gmail account, they found that he’d sent himself two screenshots of what looked to be his iPhone. The images showed what apps were installed, including several apps for anonymous texting, encrypted email, and free burner telephone numbers. Lin had also openly discussed on his Twitter account the use of such anonymizing services. Some of the data had been deleted by the operating system reinstall, but there was still plenty left, including:

• Forensic data that showed multiple references to school bomb threats in and around Waltham.
• Web browsing history that showed that the anonymous texting service used to cyberstalk Smith and her friends and relatives – TextNow – was one of the most visited online services on the machine.
• Evidence that Pure VPN, a VPN service used “repeatedly” in the cyberstalking scheme, had been installed on the computer.
• Evidence of an account in Lin’s name with Protonmail, a Swiss-based encrypted email provider that was used repeatedly in the cyberstalking.

The troll also shared child porn so it sounds odd he got away from the sex offenders list but I haven't read the actual sentence.

 

[ChemicalB]

Sad story, never underestimate the cyberstalking thinking it may be just a nonsense. Really it is a serious act of violence that has to be always reported to the authorities

 

[Weebarra]

I imagine that on his release, he will be on the sex offenders register but most likely he will kept segregated from other prisoners for his own safety, that part is an effing joke for people like him, i would throw him to the wolves and let him take his chances.

 

[ChemicalB]

I imagine that on his release, he will be on the sex offenders register but most likely he will kept segregated from other prisoners for his own safety, that part is an effing joke for people like him, i would throw him to the wolves and let him take his chances.

Totally agreed!!

 

[Eddie Morra]

Well on the bright side, one less sicko in the world for 17 more years.

Thankfully he will be behind bars to think about his behaviour and won't be able to target anyone else for at-least 17 and a half years.

And I am sure if he continues even after his sentence (assuming he ever gets out because 17 and a half years is a long time and anything can happen which will extend his sentence) I am sure it will become a more permanent thing next time...

 

[upnorth]

Curious enough I did a search and found that he was news already 1 year ago when he was arrested.



Real sick puppy and he is where he belongs. Some of his words in the criminal complaint clearly shows how derange and delusional he is.

I have read and heard many stories of friends, relatives, and other people going through horrible times in their lives. Out of them all, your life story takes the cake. What you shared is the most eye-opening, horrifying, yet interesting things I have ever read. It is fascinating how someone can be so incredibly depressed, paranoid, and slutty at the same time ... I am quite sure I will never read such an intense story again that involves so much sluttiness and crazy thoughts. So thank you for sharing your thoughts. This is a once in a lifetime experience for me.

Please stop with your baseless accusations and insults. I have never harassed you or cyber stalked you. I've been very patient with you, and will continue to be patient because I know crazy girls aren't capable of making good decisions. They just jump from one psychotic episode to another. Remember those times back in Watertown when you told us all about your problems? How you tried to kill yourself in college? How you had a medically induced miscarriage at the 7-week mark? How you were diagnosed with multiple mental disorders as a teenager? You obviously have a lot of problems, which is normal for crazy girls. That being said, you are a liar, slut, and a murderer (abortion). The only 'protection' you need is from yourself and your own mind. You are crazy, but that's alright. You're still my dealer, and we don't have to be friends to make business transactions. I'm still happy to buy weed from you like I did back when we were roommates, and I'm sure you could use the extra money too. That's basically the only thing I've contacted you about over the past few months anyway.

 

[Thales]

I'm sure PureVPN and Protonmail handed over the data to the FBI.
All of the measures that we do to protect our activity is not pointless. You can't hide from the FBI for sure but cyber stalkers can't do such a thing that the FBI can. Limiting the photos you share of yourself on FB, Instagram etc. is very smart. Encrypting your hard drive to prevent "Evil Maid Attack", or using VPN is not pointless.