Cyberstalking- apparently, it’s a lifestyle

I don’t recall mentioning that we are enduring a long-term cyberstalking/hacking issue in our household. Mostly I never mentioned it because it seems to me these sorts of people must thrive on negative attention. Like they must have been severely deprived of attention in their lives such that they create situations of negative attention and think that is awesome.

Whatever.

I think they must be extremely bored or boring if this is how they get their rocks off. But that is just me. I can think of a thousand things more interesting that being obsessed with the average everyday person. And I am someone who does get obsessed with hobbies, ideas, research… all sorts of things I get seriously into. And if I had the energy, I have a hell of a lot of things I would be doing right now. None of them or creeping on some normal person’s coming and goings online. Mind you, I do monitor my activity and my spouses’ so we can see what this creeper is up to. And in that sense, we have a lot of useless information about this person. A lot of useless information that I don’t care about so I have no idea why they would care about us so much. Frankly, I don’t care what movies they watched under my spouse’s Google Play except, man, bad taste. Or what books they read, except, again… uhg. Totally don’t dig any of their choices. Or what apps they just had to get. It is peculiar for a hacker to leave so much information behind like that but maybe not so much for a stalker. Maybe stalkers don’t care that you know what devices they used and what provider they have. Or all the code they have left behind here and there over the span of time they have been indulging in their effed up psychological crazies. From what I heard hackers generally clean up after themselves… not leave all this Stuff behind.

In actuality, a long-term hacking of all your devices and routers is extremely tiresome and annoying as all hell. It is a whole lot of resetting things and establishing new protocols and passwords. Ditching accounts because, whatever, you didn’t need them anyway. Nothing is that important really. And finding things to keep them out of your phone and network. And learning a lot more about network and cybersecurity than anyone you know ever will need to in their lifetime.

But they persist because stalkers are creepy and obsessed and they have completely incomprehensible motivations. No reasonably sane person, not that I am, can comprehend why someone would be obsessed with the ordinary lives and routines of average people. Especially on my side since I’m disabled and can’t drive… so not a whole lot of anything going on here. My routines are… limited these days. Not exactly thrilling for anyone to observe. But when it comes to the actual target, originally, of this person, it is hard to say. May be the whole household and just some random stranger that gets his/her rocks off doing this sort of thing. Or may be a specific target and someone known to us… and more than online given some of the facts we know about them.

Personally, this seems like a really boring life choice. And maybe they need a hobby or some sunshine or a crapton of therapy. Or a lot of medication. Like a LOT. Or have they considered becoming obsessed with a hobby? Like collecting doll heads? Or staring at walls? Public ranting? Writing insane rambling graffiti on walls about their ‘manifesto’?

On our side though it is one constant nuisance. Obviously, it is extremely disturbing and creepy. Obviously, it is an invasion of our privacy on a deep level. Obviously, this person is severely disturbed and that means unpredictable. Obviously, I am angry and think they are a dick. Because they waste my time and I have little energy in the day as it is to waste on resetting the network and devices because of some useless dick. Obviously… I am angry my very limited energy is wasted on their weird, creepy obsession. And obviously I loathe I have had to spend money I definitely do not have being on a fixed income to try to secure our devices and network… because this dick has trashed some of our devices for funsies. All fine for them but not like I have money to blow on things like that.

Most of all I am absolutely disgusted the system we have for this sort of thing legally is utterly useless. Of course, I went to the police. More than once. Of course, it was completely pointless, and they did absolutely nothing. It is pathetic. Go grab another donut, dude, and give out some more speeding tickets because you ‘are too busy right now’. What utter incompetence.

So we are handling it ourselves. And really it is just a lot of research and problem solving. And we are getting there bit by bit. That part of things is actually interesting to learn. I have a new love for Linux systems and we, those of us into the tech stuff, are learning things we really dig. Because we are into this sort of stuff. So that side of things is actually really fun. And we are both branching off into other things in this area we like because it is quite interesting to explore. But it is also hard to do that on a system you have to constantly maintain from being infiltrated. And constantly keep your accounts and devices secure. We have a game plan, but I am severely limited in my usable hours in the day, if I can do anything at all that day. Not even mentioning my health seems to be declining rather than stabilizing so I am just really trying hard to cope with the level of functionality I have. Just really low functioning at this time- and likely until I see my neurologist. So, I have to really, really pace myself. And other people actually have jobs to do.

We are doing what we can when we can. And we will get there. Because we have to. Cops are obviously useless. Nice to know when you need them, they are most definitely not there for you. I suppose I should have anticipated that. Women getting stalked, well, that isn’t exactly an issue that is high priority for cops. I would have had my spouse with me, but he has to work, and he isn’t tech savvy so he can’t help explaining the issues. So you do what you have to do. Learn what you have to learn. Problem solve what you have to problem solve. And just continue on with your life speculating who would be this crazy to be this persistent over time… like who is that nuts?

So if I reference cyberstalking/hacker/nutcase that is what I am referring to. I think it’s been a year and a half or two years now. Hard to even remember really. It is really just a string of problems… and fixing them. And brainstorming how to secure things. And when this person does something new… we figure out something new. And on and on and on. Pretty soon we will be more secure than a bank. We are definitely more secure than anyone else in this neighbourhood. So if it is some rando getting his rocks off… he is persisting well beyond what this ‘type’ usually does… they go for the easy target, the low hanging fruit, and taunt people for their own twisted psychological needs. And then move on the next person and the next and the next. And yeah, that is effed up… because, wow, how messed up those people must be. But if it was that sort… I assume they would have moved on by now.

But maybe not. I don’t know.

I can’t think crazy enough to understand That Crazy. Because hacking personal networks is insanely easy. I don’t think anyone realizes that. But it really, really is. So they are not out for the challenge and are not expert hackers (Well, they don’t need to be, not at all. But I suppose some could be. It isn’t required to hack a normal household network). They are out for the psychological effed up thrill of it. When the ‘fun’ dries up… they get ‘bored’ and move on to then next ‘thrill’. I don’t think we meet the criterial for ‘thrilling’ We just see the problem, go about resolving it, then move on back into what we were doing. Like I said, I get annoyed they waste my time. I actually Do have better things to do even if they don’t. What we are dealing seems much more on the cyberstalking side of things due to how they are operating. So more obsession and less like the type that is a stranger just effing with someone because they can, and it is easy.

Anyway, this will all be in my Memoir ‘Cyberstalking Hacked: A true story about constantly being forced to deal with someone’s deep psychological problems because they just can’t keep the crazy inside.‘ It’s a working title. And maybe I’ll write an article or two called ‘How to do what you like offline so your obsessive hacker can suck it.‘