Former US Government Employee Charged With Computer Hacking, Cyberstalking

A former staffer at the U.S. Embassy in London, Michael Ford, 36, was charged Tuesday with nine counts of cyberstalking, seven counts of computer hacking to extort and one count of wire fraud, for “engaging in a hacking and cyberstalking scheme in which, using stolen passwords, he obtained sexually explicit photographs and other personal information from victims’ email and social media accounts, and threatened to share the photographs and personal information unless the victims ceded to certain demands, a Justice Department news release said.