Webcam hacker used Blackshades malware to spy on his victims
A hacker from Leed has been found guilty of spying on unsuspecting victims for between five and 12 hours each day, seeing everything they did in front of their computer.. The hacker whose name is Stefan Rigo, has been found guilty of voyeurism offenses after he used Blackshades malware to spy on unsuspecting victims via webcam.
According to BBC News, Rigo pleaded guilty back into July to one count of voyeurism and one count of another computer-related offense. The documents filed in the court reveal that Rigo used his ex-girlfriend’s credit card to purchase Blackshades malware, a well known remote access trojan (RAT) that surreptitiously infects users’ computers.
“The application in itself is not that difficult to detect but typically the attackers will wrap some sort of exploit around the application,” explained Jens Monrad at cyber security firm FireEye. “Even with patches the victim will still be vulnerable so long as there is a hole in the operating system.”
In addition to observing his victims through their hijacked webcam, Rigo was also capable of stealing passwords from infected computers, reading email conversations, launch denial-of-service attacks, access banking data and so forth using the Blackshades malware which has been around since 2010.
Rigo was arrested along with approximately 80 other individuals back in November of 2014 as part of an international law enforcement effort that targeted users of Blackshades.
After his arrest, the investigators found a series of images stored on Rigo’s confiscated computer of people engaged in sexual activity over Skype or in front of their computers. Other images were of individuals simply working on their computers.
The court held Rigo guilty on various counts of voyeurism and offences under the Computer Misuse Act. Rigo given a 20 week suspended sentence and will be placed on the sexual offenders’ register for seven years. In addition he will have to perform 200 hours of community service.
“People using malicious tools like Blackshades can massively violate the privacy of their victims, and use compromised computers to facilitate further crime,” explained Angela McKenna, senior investigating officer for the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit. “Users of these tools are continuing to find that despite having no physical contact or interaction with their victims, they can still be identified, tracked down and brought to justice by the NCA and its partners,”
To avoid infection by an RAT such as Blackshades, users should avoid clicking on suspicious links in text messages and emails. Those who feel that they have been affected by this type of malware can report it to Action Fraud.
