One of the metrics people look to in order to determine if a VPN is safe is whether they keep logs. This way, if the feds request to look into the servers, potentially compromising data won't be there. However, unless the service also gets third-party audits, you're just taking that they do as they say they do. PureVPN did claim they didn't keep logs...but their logs were used to convict a Ryan S. Lin, which is how I came to be aware of the guy.
Ryan got a 17 year prison sentence with 5 years supervised release for some rather over-the-top behavior behind VPNs.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/newton-man-sentenced-over-17-years-prison-extensive-cyberstalking-campaign said:BOSTON - A Newton man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for conducting an extensive cyberstalking campaign against his former housemate, her family members, co-workers, friends, and other unrelated individuals. The defendant hacked into his former housemate’s online accounts, posted fraudulent sexual solicitations in the victims’ names, sent unsolicited images of child pornography, and made over 120 hoax bomb threats.
Ryan S. Lin, 25, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young to 210 months in prison and five years of supervised release, after pleading guilty in April 2018 to seven counts of cyberstalking, five counts of distribution of child pornography, nine counts of making hoax bomb threats, three counts of computer fraud and abuse and one count of aggravated identity theft. Lin was arrested in October 2017, and has been in custody since.
From approximately May 2016 through Oct. 5, 2017, Lin engaged in a cyberstalking campaign against his housemate, a 25-year-old female victim. Lin hacked into the victim’s online accounts and devices and stole the victim’s private photographs, personally identifiable information, and private diary entries, which contained sensitive details about her medical, psychological and sexual history, and distributed the material to hundreds of people associated with her.
Lin also created and posted fraudulent online profiles in the victim’s name and solicited rape fantasies, including a “gang bang,” and other sexual activities, which in turn caused men to show up at the victim’s home. He also engaged in a number of other activities targeting the victim, including relentless anonymous text messaging and hoaxes.
In addition to his former housemate, Lin engaged in cyberstalking activity aimed at six other individuals. Some were associated with the primary victim, and others were unrelated. The additional victims include two women who were Lin’s housemates in Newton at the time of his arrest. On multiple occasions, Lin sent unsolicited sexually explicit images of prepubescent children to the primary victim’s mother, the victim’s co-worker and housemate, a friend of the victim who resided in New Jersey, and two of Lin’s former classmates in New York.
Furthermore, Lin falsely and repeatedly reported to law enforcement that there were bombs at the primary victim’s Waltham residence. Lin also created a false social media profile in the name of the primary victim’s housemate in Waltham and posted that he was going to “shoot up” a school in Waltham, stating that there would be “blood and corpses everywhere.” These threats became part of a prolonged pattern of threats in Waltham, and eventually in surrounding towns, including schools, homes, businesses and other institutions.
https://www.csoonline.com/article/3230292/feds-nab-tech-savvy-cyberstalker-with-help-from-vpn-provider.html said:The whole thing started with a Craigslist ad by the victim, referred to as Jennifer Smith, and her roommates, who were looking for another roommate. That is how Ryan Lin entered their lives.
According to the affidavit, which was posted on New England Cable News, Smith unfortunately had no lock on her bedroom door. Plus, her MacBook was not password-protected and contained a document with all the passwords to her online accounts. One of those accounts was Google, and Google Drive was where she stored her diary.
That’s not all. Lin allegedly also sent the email that appeared to be from her to the car dealership where she leased her car and even to some faculty members where she attended university. Additionally, Lin is accused of spoofing the victim's father’s email address and sending the sexy photos and four diary entries to about 50 school email addresses.
Besides texting Smith with intimate details from her online diary, Lin also flushed her meds — or it seemed that way after a plumber found one of the missing bottles stopping up the toilet. A month after Smith moved out, she came back to retrieve the rest of her belongings and found her diary “printed and strewn around her bedroom.”
Lin didn't just victimize Smith, although she was the primary target. He also allegedly snooped on her other roommates’ computers and claimed to have installed hidden cameras in the apartment. He allegedly sent child porn to one roommate's mom, her former roommate and two college classmates. The feds were told that Lin had a history of harassing his former classmates and having “disturbing interactions” with a former roommate.
Other “threatening and harassing communications” sent to Smith encouraged her to commit suicide. He sent messages to those she knew that threatened to rape and/or kill Smith and her friends.Lin reportedly set up fake profiles using the victim’s name and filled them with rape fantasies and solicited men for BDSM fantasies. “At least three” men showed up at her house in response.
After Smith moved out, locked down the privacy settings, and blocked Lin on Facebook, he created sockpuppet accounts. He allegedly tried to “friend” her friends and family and then her after some accepted. When she didn’t fall for that, he then supposedly set up four different Instagram profiles and tried to "friend" her through those.
Lin even allegedly setup a fake profile on the petting sitting site Rover.com and sent her as many as 29 messages on her new phone in one day, messages associated with the anonymous texting service TextNow and the fake pet owner account. The affidavit claimed he sent porn and Smith’s journal excerpts to 10 other pet owners. Claiming to be Smith, he told one person for whom she was pet sitting that she had killed their pet.
There doesn't seem to be much info about the guy himself.
