How To Help Prevent Online Stalking
According to the the 2000
National Violence Against Women
Survey, 8% of women and 2% of men in the U.S. have been stalked at
some time in their life to the point where these victims felt a high
level of fear. The
Privacy
Rights Clearing House says that as many as 20% of women and 12% of
men will be stalked in their lifetime.
New Hampshire had one of the first nationally publicized where a
stalker used the Internet to find out enough about his victim to be
able to track her down and kill her. Amy Boyer's assassin killed
himself after he shot her to death in the parking lot of her employer.
In February of 2003 the New
Hampshire Supreme Court found that the online company who helped
her stalker find Amy's social security number and her employer's
address can be prosecuted.
Tips
- Use prudent network security measures (See below)
- Don't provide any personal information online
- Don't use your real name, or any portion thereof, for your screen
name
- Get a Post Office box, and use that whenever possible instead of
your home address
- Have multiple e-mail addresses, and use one exclusively for your
family and friends
- Make sure your phone number is unlisted, and your phone number is
blocked
- Don't use public computers
Quality, free anti-virus software can be found from Grisoft. Called AVG Anti-Virus it
can keep close tabs on your machine and all of your e-mail and
software.
A quality, free firewall can be found from Zone Alarm. The free version is
easier to use than the paid-for version. This software can be
complicated for a novice user, but should be manageable for most
users.
Business owners and managers face civil and criminal prosecution if
any personal information contained on their systems is compromised.
Many forms of Malware are designed to help criminals obtain this
private information. Follow the steps in the article How
To Increase Business Computer Security
See Also
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