young girl intimidated

Hey all I'm new here 2 or 3 months and I found something out today I thought that I would post to get an opinion I was at my aunts today and she tells me that her neice(14) had some guy that was chatting with her and after a little bit he sends here a pic of him in the nude and tells her to send one of her butt see refused and he told her that he would hack her system and shut her down (which he did). Now as far as i could get from my aunt he got her to give him her ip before this all happened. Obviously these people are causal internet users.
and I have not talked to them as of yet their going to call me later so we can get together

My question is what would be the first things to check to get her system back up for her so I can at least secure it a little better for them. They have no security on the system.

second which authorities should she contact the guy said he was out of state. can anything be done

third this is the opinion Q that has been explored before here and in the tech school that i am in should I try to find this guy on my own just because.

I am in know way a hacker or any of the other of those types i am in school with the hopes of getting in to the field of system security/network security so i can use this as a learning exersize.

any help or opinions are welcome thanks for any help

Hands off - let either the feds or the local police (whichever you file to) handle this one. You don't want this guy go unpushed because you did something stupid.

If you want to practice security skills do it on your own network. The correct thing to do here is to report the matter, along with any logs you have, to the proper authorities. The net is full of predators like this and if you fail to deal with the situation in the 'right way' you run the risk that the next minor that this guy comes across may not be so lucky as your cousin.

I am English, and therefore there will be others here better placed to advise on who the appropriate authorities are in your locality, but my first move would be to the local police station. If they can't help then they can advise you who can. (Certainly my impression from American movies is that inter-state criminal investigations are undertaken by the Fedaral Governemnet in the form of the FBI - but don't quote me).

Hope this helped - Let us know how you get on.

going to the authorities is my main thrust that was totaly an opinion Q the other Q about starting points is my main Question could he have formatted from remote or would he have to have physical access and what are the chances of recovering that data they have already tried the 98 rescue disk

My fist step i think is to boot to a dos disk and see what i can find from there ?

What exactly happens when you try to boot the computer? Has it completely died, or do you get some sort of message? Yes, do try to boot from dos, to see what is left of your configuration. One note: if you -do- get it back up and running, yank out the network / modem cable until you found out how he got in. My best guess is that he used some sort of trojan: install a virus scanner, and perform a complete system scan first thing when you get it back up again.

If they have another computer they can use, I would suggest you leave that one alone for a while until the computer forensics people of the authorities can get their hands on it. You will most likely have to go to the FBI since this is an interstate crime (especially if he knew her age). If they need the computer, try to do as little as possible on it, especially related to what was being use at the time (try not to use the chat prog, don't do any disc cleanups, etc).

Kezil has a good point there.

I agree with the rest here. If this guy was actually able to hack her system and shut it down, then it stands to reason that he would be able to do the same to you if you try to locate him.

Personally I think it would be very dangerous to try and do something about this on your own - whether it is locating him or attempting to "get revenge". The local authorities are much more able to locate and punish a predator such as this guy appears to be.

I would probably report this to your local police department (be it city, county or state) and if they feel that this really is a case of him being out of state then they will contact the appropriate federal authorities.

As far as the computer that was crashed, as Kezil says, I would leave it alone until the proper authorities are able to examine it for anything that might point to this sicko.

Carenath has the right idea about contacting the local authorities first. You'll also need to have enough information about this person that the local authorities can hand to whomever they deem necessary to handle this situation (name, city, state, etc. and hope that it's correct information). Although the it is an inter-state affair, they may deem to handle it "in house" and simply contact the local authorities of the area where the guy lives. The FBI may get involved, but I'd follow the chain of command if I were you. If the police say it's a federal matter, then you can inform the FBI yourself. That way, you won't piss anyone off by going over their heads. I know people in law enforcement (I work with numerous security firms) and think this is the best course of action for you to take.

Also, as carenath advised, don't go and reformat her computer or whatever you're planning on doing. If they choose to pursue this case, they're going to want to have a forensic specialist go through the computer for evidence (including chat logs, e-mail messages, information about the means of attack, etc.).

AJ

i really think this is a matter forr the cops please say u have a copy of the photo for evidence i personally think this guy should be hung *personal opinion* but 2 say he wrecked u r box well he`s looking at 2 charges 1 sending lude and lucious pics 2 an underager and crashing a box result wiping the contents i hope this scum rots in hell