This week eBay’s former head of security, Brian Gilbert, was sentenced by a San Jose judge for his role in the 2019 eBay cyberstalking campaign.
Back in 2019, eBay conducted a targeted harassment campaign against Ina and David Steiner, who owned a newsletter called EcommerceBytes. In their newsletter, the Steiners published tips and advice for the wide community of auction participants. Over the years, they also included commentary and criticism of eBay, including pointed critiques of its policy changes, opinions on how the platform had changed, and governance issues.
And…so what, right? I mean, there has to be at least a thousand blogs critical of Microsoft, Google, or Apple and they ignore them. But in early 2019, activist investor Elliott Management bought a big stake in eBay and began pressuring the board to be more profitable.
For some reason, eBay senior management decided that the way to do this was to crush EcommerceBytes. Their Chief Communications Officer, Steve Wymer, told the head of security to “crush this lady” (Ina Steiner) and “take her down”.
Head of eBay security Brian Gilbert interpreted this to mean:
- Sending the Steiners a bloody pig mask
- Sending them a dead pig
- Sending them live cockroaches and spiders
- Subscribing David Steiner to numerous pornographic magazines
- Delivering vast quantities of pizza to the Steiners’ home
- Sending them charming gives such as books on how to survive the death of a spouse
- Sending various employees to Massachusetts to vandalize their home and car
“This was a determined, systematic effort by senior employees of a major company to destroy the lives of a couple in Natick all because they published content that company executives didn’t like. For a while they succeeded, psychologically devastating these victims for weeks as they desperately tried to figure out what was going on and stop it.”
– Massachusetts US attorney Andrew Lelling
To top it off, the icing on the cake was supposed to be Gilbert contacting the couple and acting as a savior, offering eBay’s help to investigate this harassment.
Fortunately, the police got tipped off. And on Thursday, the last sentences were handed out. Gilbert got time served (about 3 years) and a fine, and others were sentenced from one to three years.
I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.
I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308
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