Computer Security Spying Pervert Hacked Webcams to View People in...

Spying Pervert Hacked Webcams to View People in Compromising Situations Gets Reprieved Sentence

webcam spy perp caught and sentencedSometimes people feel as if there are no consequences or repercussions for their activities conducted over the Internet. Many feel as if their identity behind the computer screen is one that can never be uncovered no matter how illegal or questionable their actions are. As it turns out, a 33 year old UK man, Stefan Rigo, nearly went to prison for spying on people making love by hacking webcams over the Internet.

Rigo was arrested back in November 2014 for cybercriminal activity carried out at the same time in the UK, Estonia, Romania, France, Norway and Latvia. The following investigation revealed that Rigo's confiscated computer contained recorded movies where the over 14 victims appeared to be in the act of having sexual relations.

In Rigo's recent life, on September 16, 2015, he appeared in Leeds court pleading guilty to voyeurism and other offenses to the Computer Misuse Act. As a result of his charges, Rigo received a suspended sentence of 40 weeks in jail and 200 hours of unpaid community work.

Although Rigo's charges were nearly a slap on the hand, he will still face the music by forfeiting his computer equipment and register as a sex offender with local authorities wherever he resides for the next 7 years. Though, a similar case where an individual named Alex Yucel, creator of the BlackShades Remote Access Tool, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for his malware being utilized to spy on Syrian activists in 2012. There have been many other cases where perpetrators were caught in 'sextortionist' schemes and they paid the price through being thrown in jail.

The similarities of Rigo and Yucel's hacking activities roots back to the malware that they both hand their hands in, a Remote Access Tool (RAT) of some type that allows spying on other computers connected to the Internet. In Rigo's case he was able to hack webcams through specialized malware and then spy and record his victims in compromising situations. Such malware can record user activities by storing and sending keystrokes or enabling webcams to record without the affected computer user's knowledge.

While crafty Remote Access Tools are dangerous pieces of malware that arm hackers with unfettered access to targeted computers, they are readily available on the Dark Web. The Dark Web is a specialized location on the Internet that is inaccessible by the public and only made available to those who use the Tor web browser and have permissions to sift through a plethora of malicious software tools specialized for hackers. Such a place is reserved for those who do no good on the Internet and has been the root of many hacking incidents in the past.

Fortunately, from operations conducted by law enforcement agencies around the world, such as the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and NCA (National Crime Agency) who were responsible for nabbing Rigo, the hackers and perpetrators of spreading and using malware are brought to justice. We can only hope that the actions of law enforcement continue to bring people like Rigo and Yucel to justice.

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