Salisbury man arrested on federal cyberstalking charges

The U.S. Department of Justice says a Salisbury man was arrested Friday morning after an FBI cyberstalking investigation linked him to an incident where a Twitter message containing a strobe image was sent to a man with epilepsy, causing the man to suffer a seizure.

29-year-old John Rayne Rivello allegedly sent the strobe image to Newsweek writer Kurt Eichenwald, of Dallas, Texas, who Rivello reportedly knew suffered from epilepsy. Along with the strobing image, Rivello reportedly wrote, "You deserve a seizure for your post." Immediately upon opening the message, Eichenwald reportedly suffered a seizure.

Officials say a search warrant of Rivello's Twitter account revealed direct messages between Rivello and others with statements bragging about what he sent. "Let's see if he dies," one message allegedly said.

Investigators say the search warrant also showed a screenshot of Eichenwald's Wikipedia page in Rivello's iCloud account, with the page being edited to list Eichenwald's death as December 16, 2016. The iCloud account also reportedly included screenshots of health websites with information about epilepsy seizure triggers. An image of an article from The Dallas Observer about the Dallas Police Department's attempt to identify the Twitter account used in the attack was also found, Department of Justice officials said.

Rivello is charged with cyberstalking.

Kurt Eichenwald tweeted Friday morning thanking law enforcement agencies for their work in the case.

Maryland State Police and the Ocean City Police Department assisted the FBI with Rivello's arrest, officials said. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney C.S. Heath of the Northern District of Texas and Aaron Cooper of the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.