Cyberstalking Case Study Paper Essay Example for Free

Cyberstalking Case Study Paper Essay In, People of the State of California (Plaintiff) v. George Samuel Bronk (Defendant), the defendant used various software, tools, and methods to commit the felonies for which he was charged. He initially used a computer with access to the Internet to take over the email accounts of individuals who he located using the popular social media website, Facebook. Mr. Bronk located his victims by searching random Facebook profiles that had personal email addresses available to the public. Once he had the email addresses he tried to access emails accounts, by attempting to reset the passwords for said email accounts, by guessing at the security questions. Once he was able to gain access to the emails accounts, he went back to the Facebook profiles and took over the Facebook profiles as well. Mr. Bronk utilized various online email service providers such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo. The victims each had respective accounts with these email service providers which were overtaken by Mr. Bronk, using the methods described above. Mr. Bronk also used Microsoft Office Outlook in the commission of his crimes. Besides the cyberstalking, investigators also found evidence of extortion and pornography on Mr. Bronks computer hard disk storage drives. Along with these counts, Mr. Bronk is also charged with the possession of child pornography. The defendant used a computer and access to the Internet to gain unauthorized access to an online chatting forum in which blackmailed a victim into sending him nude photographs and videos of herself. Mr. Bronk also had on his computer storage devices child pornographic materials such as photographs and videos. The defendant gained access to this material with the use of his computer and a connection to the Internet. Investigators were notified when a victim reported that her email and Facebook accounts had been hijacked and inappropriate messages sent to her entire contact list, in Connecticut. When an Ex-parte motion was filed for the IP address of the computer device that was used to target the victim in Connecticut, it was found that the IP address subscriber information came back to a California address. This is when a large scale investigation was started and multiple victims were discovered. Upon further investigation the details of how the defendant carried out the crimes and other crimes unrelated to cyberstalking, such as extortion and possession of child pornography were committed by the defendant.