It started six years ago with E-mail from someone claiming to be an old friend-a message that launched a reign of terror that left a bright, energetic, and capable woman feeling powerless and alone. The barrage of messages numbered in the hundreds. Many of those included pornographic images and sexually explicit language. "J" was a victim of cyberstalking. She's also a municipal employee, which made it easier for her to be cyberstalked.
"J" would get an E-mail from a stranger claiming to know her, making references to personal details, including her name, address, phone number, employer, and even her mortgage holder. When she didn't respond, the stalker became hostile and abusive.
The cyberstalking wasn't limited to E-mail. Her stalker would go into chat rooms posing as "J", engage in cybersex, and solicit offline contact with men, giving out her name and phone number. The campaign escalated with a posting on an adult message board, asking men to call "J" at work to arrange for sexual encounters. The result was akin to putting her number on the world's largest men's room wall. Most of this cyberstalking occurred in the workplace. And, to up the ante, the stalker got her co-workers involved, sending them sexually explicit images and messages posing as her.
Many jobs expose employees' names, titles, E-mail addresses, and work phone numbers on a Web site. But as a municipal employee, "J" faced additional exposure that made her a much easier target. As she so eloquently explains, "The problem with being a government servant is that by the very nature of the job, you must be visible. This is especially true for me. I'm a public-relations specialist. I must be visible within the community. People must know my name and be able to contact me in order for me to effectively perform my job."
Many government agencies use a predictable E-mail format, which includes the employee's name, such as firstname.lastname@nameofcity.gov. Names and contact information often can be searched on the agency's home-page directory. When combined, these make government employees very accessible and very easy cyberstalking targets.
"J" doesn't blame her employer (whose IT head has been very helpful) but believes that public-sector employers have a higher level of responsibility to protect employees from harassment. "If you're going to put your employees in the public eye and ask them to make themselves available to the community, governments must recognize this special burden and put policies in place to protect them."
The most discouraging part for "J" was that she couldn't make it stop, and no one else could help her. Law enforcement would not get involved, as cyberstalking laws are new and often misunderstood. Even when the laws are understood and law enforcement knows how to conduct a cyberforensics investigation, cyberstalking is often only a misdemeanor-with fines less than $1,000 and only optional jail time.
Help is available for victims of cyberstalking. "J" and her employer weren't aware of options such as my WiredSafety organization (wiredsafety.org), which has a special team to handle cyberstalking reports, without charge. It's the largest such help group in the world, assisting more than 1,000 victims a month with information, education, and other services.
Parry Aftab, Esq.