7 But all emails came from the same IP address in Santa Ana. Mijangos had other identities too: Some emails came from sometimes he was 6 According to court records in his federal criminal prosecution, Mijangos used at least 30 different screen names to avoid detection. On November 5, 2009, sent an email to another woman with the subject line: “who hacked your account READ it!!!” 4In the email, Mijangos attached a naked photo of the victim and told her “im in control of your computers right now.” 5 Located in Santa Ana, California, his name was Luis Mijangos. This victim knew her correspondent only as but the attacker turned out to be a talented 32-year-old proficient in multiple computer languages.

Later in the day, to underscore his seriousness, the hacker followed up with another email threatening the victim: “You have six hours.” 2 And if she did not send it within one day, he threatened to publish the images already in his possession, and “let family know about dark side.” If she contacted law enforcement, he promised he would publish the photos on the Internet too. The perpetrator wanted a pornographic video of the victim. The demand made this hack different: This computer intrusion was not about money. Following that were details of her personal life: her husband and her three kids.

When the victim opened the email, she found sexually explicit photos of herself attached and information that detailed where she worked. It started with an email from an unknown sender with the subject line, “Read this and be smart.” 1

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