A 23-year-old man was accused of violating the online privacy of women. George Bronk pleaded guilty to charges including computer intrusion, false impersonation and possession of child pornography. He is about to serve a six-year sentence as promulgated by the state attorney general’s office. A probation officer recommended that he should serve four years instead.
With ample technical knowledge he was able to intrude into the Facebook accounts of some women. He then searched for nude or seminude photos and videos of his victims. After finding some of these materials, he forward the materials to the women’s contact lists.
According to the prosecutors, Bronk was "stalking the women". He changed the email passwords once he intruded their accounts. Having control over their accounts he was able to have some online exchanges with them. There were instances when he intimidated at least one woman to send him some more of similar photos. He also threatened his victims to distribute the pictures that he already had if they would not give in to his demand.
These women come from England, Washington, D.C., and 17 other states. Investigators were able to track them when they searched Bronk’s computer. They also found 172 email files containing nude and seminude photos in the same computer. The women said that their privacy rights were violated. They found out that their photos were distributed to co-workers, families, employees and friends.
Attorney Monica Lynch stood in defense to George Bronk. She gave explanation why her client was able to do such offense. She said that he was immature, unemployed and killing time as he took care of his ill parents. Having nothing else to do, he found trolling women’s Facebook pages as his way of “buying time”. He was able to look at their emails, gleaned enough personal information that he was able to answer basic internet questions to access their accounts.
The lawyer further added that Bronk was a naïve, young person who was into alcohol. He was not conscious that he was causing public embarrassment. His leisure time was spent sitting in front of his computer and doing these things. She also argued that the victims themselves should be blamed for what happened. They put themselves at risk by taking and uploading those explicit photos and videos.
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