Matthew H. lived in England and for five years he targeted multiple women with stalking.
The way he harassed his victims was by creating fake social media accounts on platforms such as Instagram.
Then he would reach out to their families to gain information about the victim.
He would pose as a friend and would learn things about his victims that would be embarrassing.
After gaining the trust of victims he would send messages he knew were a lie to create anger among the victims and their families.
He bombarded his victims with messages that they were constantly being watched.
He also harassed his victims’ families by telling them the victim was cheating on their spouses.
In one instance, he targeted a woman that owned a small business.
He called her more than 70 times and set up fake social media profiles using her pictures.
In another case, Matthew told a victim’s family that she was having a relationship with another close friend.
One victim was so scared of Matthew that she slept with a baseball bat at night.
Oftentimes Matthew would taunt his victims. He would say things like, “It’ll never stop, you know.” He would also tell his victims, “Good luck figuring out who I am.”
He picked his victims at random, doing it all for his own twisted satisfaction.
A judge ordered him to serve nine years for his crimes.
At sentencing the judge said, the victims had “done nothing to harm you” and they paid for it in “sheer misery”.
Matthew’s crimes are an example of “vibe hacking,” one of the latest forms of social engineering cyber-attacks.
Hackers manipulate human emotions and the victims’ decision-making processes.
It’s a shift from the old way of carrying out cyber-attacks.
To make matters worse, cybercriminals are using artificial intelligence to make vibe hacking even more successful.
Considering this, here are a few ways to spot “vibe hacking.”
Emotion shifts:
A telltale sign of a vibe hacker is someone in a group chat, forum, or social media post trying to turn the topic in a negative direction.
Cybercriminals want to inject emotional content (such as fake posts) that will disrupt the positive talk of the group.
The goal of the hackers is to make others in the group feel anxious or divided.
So, if you are part of a social media group chat and someone is trying to turn everything negative it could be the start of a vibe hacking.
Stirring:
Another sign of vibe hacking is when a hacker attempts to dominate a thread or social media post.
They will often share extreme opinions or try to generate outrage.
They will try to draw everyone into a false consensus by convincing others that everyone feels a certain way about the subject.
AI content:
A third sign of vibe hacking is when hackers use AI-generated content or faked content.
For instance, hackers use AI to create deepfake videos or audio that evoke strong emotional reactions.
The emotions they play on are often anger or fear.
Hackers will target political or activist groups with the manipulated AI to try to make them angry towards the opposing views.
They aim to cause a more suspicious view towards those who might think differently.
Hackers are always looking for new techniques.
And one of the most successful ways they have found is to target emotions.
So, if you frequently use social media or share information on different platforms, watch out for it. (easier said than done, I realize.)
Vibe hacking is just one more danger you face when you go online.
That’s why it’s absolutely vital that you have a proven system and a plan in place to keep you and your family’s private information safe online.
