The Australian Computer Society (ACS) refused to act on ‘Sockpuppet' Nominee Impersonation
AUSTRALIA - 11/02/2017 (PRESS RELEASE JET)
In the soon to be announced ‘ICT Professional of the Year’ award (2/11/2017), a nominee has been subject to over a month of cyberstalking as the ACS would not admit their Twitter account was impersonated by jealous trolls/hackers/stalkers. The false duplicate ACS account terrorised a nominee, publically stating that the nominee was not the chosen nominee and the cyberbullies and cyberstalkers enjoyed the glory, calling the nominee 'a fake', 'a fraud', and much worse, while the industry giant stayed back and did nothing.
Especially for an industry candidate well known to the ICT profession for his work in Cybersecurity, providing digital forensic evidence to Australian Corporations and individuals, whose clients would otherwise would be turned away or ignored by the police - this was an ethical shock to see an industry society act in this way.
A ‘sockpuppet’ is defined as ‘an online identity used for purposes of deception’. The highly regarded Cybersecurity expert Simon Smith, also known as eVestigator has been subject to constant stalking, deceit, attacks and false accusations and publications from cyber-criminals over Twitter, what Mr. Smith warns is a “criminal stalkers playground”.
“They even go as far as inventing evidence because there is nothing of fact they can accus. They have gone through my personal life, drawn disgusting images over my pictures, called during the night, stolen copyright images, falsified emails, falsified documents, engaged in hate speech, created fake websites, reported false information, and terrorised my family. The ACS topped it off by giving these criminals them more ammunition, when all they had to do was admit that they were impersonated. The criminal motive? I found a hacker network purporting to be “infosec” and “cybersec” wanting to cash in on the Government’s tax incentive – when really, by their actions they have proven to be criminal black hat hackers.”
Mr. Smith then went on to say, “However, the concerning part is that the ACS were contacted by two of my prior clients with express concern for my well-being, asking, ‘Why are you not making a public statement protecting your nominee?’. One prior client was shocked to hear four promises stating 'they would be addressing the issue' were not honoured.”
It is advised, another prior client wrote in showing her dissatisfaction, and questioned the ethics of the ‘professional organisation’. She too was ignored. Mr. Smith said, “I personally wrote to the ACS many times and was ignored or diverted. Having 21 years’ experience in the ICT sector building successful ten figure Corporations, it is my view that the ACS ethics policy is breached. I put it to them that they had a duty of care to report the Cybercrime instead of brushing the matter under the carpet for reputational purposes.”
The incident occurred on the 7th October 2017. “I had to resort to contacting the former CEO of Melbourne IT (Simon Smith) myself. His secretary was lovely and confirmed with him that he was not at all affiliated with any ACS activity and knew nothing of it.”
The day before the awards are announced, after a month of Cyberstalkers having made in excess of 50 retweets and tweets direct to the real ACS Twitter account containing both the image and questions, today the 1st November 2017, Mr. Smith received an email from Stephen Buckman, the CTO of ACS. It stated, “We have completed a thorough review…there is no record of any activity in the screen images which we can analyse. In the absence of full screenshot and source code from Twitter for these comments, we are unable to take the investigation further, and consider the investigation closed.”
To that Mr. Smith says, “Regardless of tomorrow’s outcome – 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, ACS conduct of hiding a Cybercrime is a disgrace. I have morals, and this shows a lack of public disclosure. I do not endorse these business practices. For a company that purports to know Cybersecurity, I am wondering. I am a Certified Expert Witness and Forensic practicing Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Investigator and do this work for Australia, and thought I might have deserved some response. Any trophy that comes my way will be returned to sender.”
Simon Smith (eVestigator) reports - https://www.evestigatormedia.com.au - LI: https://linkedin.com/in/simonsmithinvestigator
Media Contacts:
| person_outline | Full Name: | Simon Smith |
| phone | Phone Number: | +61410643121 |
| business_center | Company: | Simon Smith eVestigator |
| language | Website: | https://www.evestigatormedia.com.au |
| mail_outline | Email: Send Email |
