Cyber hackers in the US targeted the Epilepsy Foundation, sending videos and images of flashing strobe lights. The followers of Epilepsy Foundation were targeted on Twitter last month, with an aim to trigger seizures in those with epilepsy.
The Epilepsy Foundation announced about the same in a news release, where they accepted about being the target of a mass cyberattack. According to the foundation, a formal criminal complaint has been filed with law enforcement authorities. The attackers have used the Foundation’s Twitter handle and hashtags to post flashing or strobing lights.
The seizures themselves can cause difficulty breathing, convulsions, loss of consciousness and even death.
Allison Nichol, the Epilepsy Foundation’s director of legal advocacy, said: “Twitter is one of the largest places of public gathering that exists today.
“These attacks are no different than a person carrying a strobe light into a convention of people with epilepsy and seizures, with the intention of inducing seizures and thereby causing significant harm to the participants.”
“While the population of those with photosensitive epilepsy is small, the impact can be quite serious,” Jacqueline French, chief medical and innovation officer of the Epilepsy Foundation, said in a statement. “Many are not even aware they have photosensitivity until they have a seizure.”
“If Twitter determines accounts are dedicated to causing offline harm, they will be permanently suspended,” a Twitter spokesman said. “We’re exploring additional options to help protect the people on Twitter from this type of abuse.”
A similar attack occurred in 2016 when a Maryland man was charged with aggravated assault after allegedly sending a tweet to journalist Kurt Eichenwald that triggered an epileptic seizure. Eichenwald, who’s written openly about his epilepsy in past years, received the tweet after he criticized then-President-elect Donald Trump’s policies on TV.
The suspect, identified as John Rayne Rivello, allegedly sent the tweet, with the message: “You deserve a seizure.”