December 25, 2022

Atlanta Business Journal: Atlanta homebuilding giant PulteGroup fires incoming COO for alleged Twitter bots

Atlanta Business Journal: Atlanta homebuilding giant PulteGroup fires incoming COO for alleged Twitter bots. “The founding family of the Atlanta-based homebuilder (NYSE:PHM) filed a civil complaint against Brandon Jones for ‘interfering, stalking, harassing, and defaming the company’s founder, William J. Pulte, his grandson Bill Pulte, and his family,’ according to a news release Friday. The complaint alleges Jones, who was set to succeed executive vice president and chief operating officer John Chadwick on Jan. 1, creating fraudulent Twitter profiles.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
December 23, 2022

NBC News: California police say member of Elon Musk’s security team is a suspect following stalker claim

NBC News: California police say member of Elon Musk’s security team is a suspect following stalker claim. “The Dec. 13 incident in a Los Angeles-area highway has become a flashpoint for a debate about online speech and the dissemination of personal information, although authorities had previously said little about what happened. In a statement Tuesday, police in South Pasadena said that the incident involved a member of Musk’s security team, whose vehicle hit the car of a man he alleged was following him.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
October 6, 2022

Daily Post: Internet Trolls Have Tormented This Sci-Fi Writer for Years—and He Can’t Stop Them

Daily Beast: Internet Trolls Have Tormented This Sci-Fi Writer for Years—and He Can’t Stop Them. “Four years ago, Patrick Tomlinson tweeted out that he never found Saturday Night Live legend Norm Macdonald funny. That largely innocuous hot take has since resulted in a yearslong mass harassment campaign, culminating in the sci-fi author receiving countless death threats and being on the receiving end of multiple ‘swatting’ attempts—hoaxing a serious law-enforcement emergency at a target’s home—the last of which was just days ago. Worse yet, his anonymous tormentors are protected by the law.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
April 7, 2022

Motherboard: Police Records Show Women Are Being Stalked With Apple AirTags Across the Country

Motherboard: Police Records Show Women Are Being Stalked With Apple AirTags Across the Country. “Attach an AirTag to your purse, keys, wallet, or even your car, and if you lose it, the device will ping every nearby Apple product with Bluetooth turned on to triangulate its location. Those devices send its location back to you on a map, showing where the AirTag has been and its current location. Police records reviewed by Motherboard show that, as security experts immediately predicted when the product launched, this technology has been used as a tool to stalk and harass women.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
February 3, 2022

PC Magazine: ‘Silent AirTags’ With Speakers Removed Pop Up on Etsy, eBay

PC Magazine: ‘Silent AirTags’ With Speakers Removed Pop Up on Etsy, eBay. “As a safety precaution, Apple AirTags will beep if they’re separated from their owners for a set period of time—if they’re slipped into someone’s pocket, bag, or car to stalk them, for example. But a merchant on Etsy tried to undermine this safeguard by selling modified AirTags that had their internal speakers removed.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 15, 2021

Technology-enabled abuse: how ‘safety by design’ can reduce stalking and domestic violence (The Conversation)

The Conversation: Technology-enabled abuse: how ‘safety by design’ can reduce stalking and domestic violence . “Traditional ideas of cybersecurity are focused on ‘stranger threats’. However, to reduce and combat digital domestic and family violence we need an ‘intimate threat’ model. Partners and family can compel others to provide access to devices. They may be linked to online accounts or able to guess passwords, based on their intimate knowledge of the owner. In this context, technologies that enable surveillance and recording can be used to constrain and threaten victims and survivors in alarming ways, in everyday life.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
July 14, 2021

Business Insider: A Facebook engineer abused access to user data to track down a woman who had left their hotel room after they fought on vacation, new book says

Business Insider: A Facebook engineer abused access to user data to track down a woman who had left their hotel room after they fought on vacation, new book says. “A Facebook engineer reportedly abused employee access to user data to track down a woman who had left him after they fought, a new book says. Between January 2014 and August 2015, the company fired 52 employees for exploiting user data for personal means, according to an advance copy of ‘An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination’ that Insider obtained.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
June 12, 2021

CNET: Apple AirTags can be used to track you. Here’s how to make that stop

CNET: Apple AirTags can be used to track you. Here’s how to make that stop. “AirTags use a combination of sensors, wireless signals and Apple’s extensive Find My network to help people locate lost items. Apple built in several safeguards to prevent the devices from being used to track people — an industry first. However, many have noted that those protections may not be enough to protect victims.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
April 8, 2021

Elite University Track Coach Stole Athletes’ Nudes Then Extorted Them: DOJ (The Daily Beast)

The Daily Beast: Elite University Track Coach Stole Athletes’ Nudes Then Extorted Them: DOJ. “A track coach who left Northeastern after a sexual harassment investigation and was then hired by another university is facing several charges after allegedly duping female athletes to send him nude photographs in an elaborate social media scheme—and cyberstalking at least one of them.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
October 7, 2020

Inside eBay’s Cockroach Cult: The Ghastly Story of a Stalking Scandal (New York Times)

New York Times: Inside eBay’s Cockroach Cult: The Ghastly Story of a Stalking Scandal. “This account is based on court documents and dozens of interviews with people who followed the stalking scandal closely, including six who worked in Global Security and Resilience. The scheme they describe was both completely malevolent and remarkably inept — full of daft assumptions on the part of eBay about a plot that did not exist. It stands as a warning about how easily tech companies can feel aggrieved, and the mayhem that can ensue when they do. And it vividly shows how the internet makes people crazy, often without them ever realizing it.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
November 9, 2019

Make Tech Easier: Stalkers Are Increasingly Using Phone Apps to Follow Their Victims

Make Tech Easier: Stalkers Are Increasingly Using Phone Apps to Follow Their Victims. “Stalking is something that is as old as time. As long as there have been people and relationships, there has been obsession and a desire to soak up every bit of information about a person, but not in a good way. Today’s technology is making it easier for stalkers to continue on with their mission to control, and they are increasingly doing it with the aid of phone apps.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
August 27, 2019

Motherboard: Freelance Site Fiverr Offers Illegal Private Spying Services

Motherboard: Freelance Site Fiverr Offers Illegal Private Spying Services. “Freelancer site Fiverr is where a company can hire a short term app developer, a logo designer, or someone to help with their social media accounts. Fiverr is also a site where you can buy malware to illegally spy on your spouse, pay someone to place a GPS tracker on a car, or hire an unlicensed private investigator, according to Fiverr listings.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
March 7, 2019

Motherboard: Stalkers and Debt Collectors Impersonate Cops to Trick Big Telecom Into Giving Them Cell Phone Location Data

Motherboard: Stalkers and Debt Collectors Impersonate Cops to Trick Big Telecom Into Giving Them Cell Phone Location Data. “….bounty hunters and people with histories of domestic violence have managed to trick telecommunications companies into providing real-time location data by simply impersonating US officials over the phone and email, according to court records and multiple sources familiar with the technique. In some cases, these people abuse telecom company policies created to give law enforcement real-time location data without a court order in ‘exigent circumstances,’ such as when there is the imminent threat of physical harm to a victim.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
January 4, 2019

Northern Public Radio: New Illinois Law Includes Unwanted Social Media Messages As Stalking Behavior

Northern Public Radio: New Illinois Law Includes Unwanted Social Media Messages As Stalking Behavior. “Unwanted social media messages are now on the list of behaviors that can be cited when petitioning to file for stalking ‘no-contact order.’ That’s one of the hundreds of new Illinois laws that went into effect in the new year. Previously, phone calls, text messages and emails were included, but not messages from platforms like Facebook or Twitter.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

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