Fighting Cyber Harassment

As technology advances and becomes deeply ingrained in our routines, instances of online abuse and cyber harassment have become increasingly common. Cyber harassment is a catch-all term used to describe any online action designed to induce fear or cause harm to others. Cyber harassment takes many forms, including cyber stalking, bullying, doxxing, and defamation.  It can occur on any digital platform, including social media channels, apps, email, online forums, or messaging, making everyone who owns an electronic device a potential victim.

The harasser often hides behind anonymous profiles, using their hidden identity to make it harder for anyone to track their illegal actions and hold them accountable. The anonymity provided by many platforms allows the perpetrator to act without fear of any consequence, creating a digital landscape where abuse has been able to flourish.

The structure and function of social media platforms mirror the biases and violent prejudices that exist in our society. The internet is meant to connect us, but often ends up reinforcing the existing inequalities and allows the conditions for harassment to thrive. Rather than encouraging meaningful and constructive contact, platforms frequently facilitate negative behavior that exacerbates social issues and affects victims worldwide.

What Is Considered Cyber Harassment?

Cyber harassment is the intentional use of information and communication technologies to degrade, perturb, harm, threaten, alarm, or verbally abuse a victim.

List of things that could be cyber harassment:

1. Threatening Messages: sending death threats or intimidating with messages promising some type of harm.
2. Cyber Bullying: Insulting, ridiculing, or bullying in a digital space. This could also include posting offensive comments or hate speech. While freedom of speech provides some protections, it normally does not extend to this type of harassment.
3. Doxxing: Posting private information without consent, this can include personal information for a person including their address, phone number, email, or locations of their places of work or school.
4. Trolling: A form of targeted harassment, in which one or more people work together to abuse their target online over an amount of time, to harm, damage their reputation, or silence them from speaking on certain forums.
5. Cyber Stalking: Stalking: monitoring someone’s activity, tracking of location, investigating someone’s public records, or contacting someone repeatedly despite being blocked or ignored.
6. Revenge Porn: It’s the non-consensual sharing or distribution of explicit images or videos, with the intent to humiliate the victim.

Can You Report Cyber Harassment to Law Enforcement?  

Yes, while many states have different laws on what constitutes harassment, each have laws that deem harassment to be illegal. You’ll want to report the incident to local law enforcement to ensure you take proper steps.

There is one caveat to this. In order to report your harasser to law enforcement, you’ll need their identity. The harasser will also need to be in the same jurisdictional zone as where the crime is reported. If you are experiencing cyber harassment where you don’t have the identity of the perpetrator, please click here to jump to the appropriate section.

The steps you can take when the identity of the criminal is known are as follows:

1. Don’t block the harasser. While you should cease communication with the criminal, hold your conversations open on any of the platforms you’ve faced the harassment. Try not to negotiate or come to any amends with them.
2. Collect evidence. Gather all the information you have, take screenshots of the conversations, and record them if they are calling you. Try to gather every piece adding to the record the date and the time of the incident.
3. Report it.  Many social media platforms have the option to report the harassment to their system administrators. Some social media platforms flag the user and delete their account when this behavior is reported.

Is Cyber Stalking Considered Harassment?

Yes, cyberstalking is defined as classified as a form of harassment. It is classified this way as it involves an action that significantly impacts the emotional and physical state of the victim through unwanted contact through digital means like texts, social posts, or tracking the victims location or activity. At Digital Forensics Corp., we treat these issues with caution, putting our clients practical needs as our top priority.

Is Sextortion a Form of Cyber Harassment?

Sextortion is classified as a form of cyber extortion and in most cases is not considered a form of cyber harassment. The defining element that makes sextortion different from forms of cyber harassment like revenge porn, is that the criminal is attempting to extort the victim for financial gain. For instance, receiving unwanted sexual content or sexually based threats qualifies as harassment and is separate from sextortion. Sextortion is best understood as a form of blackmail in which perpetrators extort victims by threatening to release intimate sexual content if not compensated for not sharing.

What if Your Abuser Is Harassing You Anonymously? 

Abusers can now easily harass anyone without fear of repercussions because of technology that provides anonymity. Tools like VPNs, disposable emails, and fake profiles create a veil of anonymity that even local authorities might find difficult to break.

Cybersecurity firms play an important role in tackling this issue. By employing innovative forensic tools to detect digital footprints and track the sources of malicious conduct these companies are able to safeguard their clients online presence to stop continued harassment.

If you are facing anonymous harassment, seek support from an accredited cyber security company that specializes in incident response or digital forensics.

How Digital Forensics Corp. Helps Fight Cyber Harassment.

At DFC, we employ rigorous device and email header analysis to locate the origins of cyber threats. We assist in identifying offenders and offer options to improve your safety by analyzing metadata, IP addresses, and other digital footprints. Everyone on our team is dedicated to providing you with accurate guidance throughout the entire investigation.

If you’re facing an issue with an abuser online, we suggest you consider the following steps:

1. Retain Information: keep screenshots, messages, and emails the person might have sent you. This information allows professionals the possibility of making a thorough analysis of your scenario, don’t delete anything.
2. Limit Contact: Don’t engage with the bully, try to ignore them as much as you can without blocking them completely. Don’t fall into their emotional trap and don’t negotiate with them, often, negotiation can escalate the circumstances.  It’s important that even though you might want to limit their access, blocking them could potentially ruin the opportunity to investigate their profile.
3. Contact Us: Our team is available 24/7 combating different types of cybercrimes across the globe. You can either use our website chat or call directly into our helpline at 888.203.0221 for a free consultation.

Sources:

1. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/White-House-Task-Force-to-Address-Online-Harassment-and-Abuse_FINAL.pdf
2. https://sherloc.unodc.org/cld/en/education/tertiary/cybercrime/module-12/key-issues/cyberstalking-and-cyberharassment.html

DISCLAIMER: THIS POST IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSIDERED LEGAL ADVICE ON ANY SUBJECT MATTER. DIGITAL FORENSICS CORP. IS NOT A LAWFIRM AND DOES NOT PROVIDE LEGAL ADVICE OR SERVICES. By viewing posts, the reader understands there is no attorney-client relationship, the post should not be used as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed professional attorney, and readers are urged to consult their own legal counsel on any specific legal questions concerning a specific situation.