Posted on 04/18/2010 12:50:15 AM PDT by Dallas59
Three years before her estranged husband killed her, Sandra Bentley told friends that her computer was doing things she did not want.
The cursor would highlight words by itself. It floated over them and even changed them spontaneously. Documents she created and saved disappeared from memory. Folders stored in one file were altered and saved somewhere else, Sandra's friend Charma Meek said.
Sandra, 50, of Grapevine, told friends that she feared her reality was imploding, just like her mother's mind disintegrated just before schizophrenia was diagnosed.
But Sandra wasn't hallucinating or losing her mind, said her attorney, V. Wayne Ward. "Takeover" software had been planted in her computer.
Meek and another of Sandra's friends, Marinda Stankiewicz, said they believe that Curtis Bentley planted it.
"He had established a ghost on her computer," Meek said.
Now when domestic abuse counselors gather with victims, they tell Sandra's story as a cautionary tale. Technology marketed to parents to let them control and monitor their children, they warn, can also be misused to manipulate or track others.
"Used to be, if a spouse ran away in the night, it was quite a bit of work to find her," said Aaron Hughes, a computer forensics expert based in Houston. "Now a lot of people have access to things that they never even thought about before."
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
Sorry to say it but ...
Buy a Mac -— too many open ports and viruses and spyware on a WIndows. Bill Gates gets uber rich; his customers are tortured daily.
or
She should have run to the nearest computer repair store and had the thing wiped clean, HD swapped, etc.
Or just toss in the garbage and buy another
etc
not doing anything seems to be the option she chose.
Two ways of saying the same thing, BTW.
If a bitter “ex” can cause this much mayhem in your life, just imagine what a team of covert govt. “electronic plumbers” could do to destroy “enemies of the state.”
Excellent point. The purge may be coming.
That’s one of the reasons I have not put my books into any digital formats yet.
An internet search could be turned into search and destroy. Electronic books could be deleted or corrupted.
My 28,000 hard copy books in circulation can’t be deleted or destroyed.
The biggest fear is that people can have their entire lives ruined by electronic records. There is enough information out there that no one can be made to dissappear, but the same systems can be used to create a new identity fairly quickly. They can also be made to deny credit, access to checking accounts, cancel driver’s licenses, revoke license plates, create false arrest warrants, etc.
That’s a good point. Electronics books can be re-written and falsely distributed with really nasty writings that make you and your books look really bad. Paper, not so much.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.