A Gainesville, Fl., and a Cyprus man are both in jail after using women’s Webcams to shoot video and photos of them without their knowledge.

web camera

The Gainesville Sun reports that Craig Matthew Feigin, a 23-year-old Los Angeles native, is being charged with modifying computer data and disrupting or denying computer system services. Feigin is accused of installing software on a woman’s computer, and then using the software to remotely control the camera to shoot video of the woman and her friends without their knowledge.

Ars Technica identifies the woman as Marisel Garcia and reports that she had left her malfunctioning computer with Feigin, a University of Florida student, for repairs on July 4.

After she got the machine back, Garcia noticed problems – reduced battery life and a light that indicated her build-in camera was on each time she got near the computer. A friend with IT experience found the software.

According to Gainesvill police, Feigin – who was reportedly shocked and surprised to have been arrested—shot videos that were used to create more than 20,000 photographs of Garcia in various stages of undress, which were sent to an Eastern European server.

[Gainesville Police Detective Joseph] Mayo said Feigin admitted installing the programs on the woman’s computer, viewing photographs of the woman on the server and controlling the woman’s computer remotely over the Internet. Further, Mayo said, Feigin admitted to having done the same things to another woman’s computer.

“We have eight or nine more potential victims that we know of now,” Mayo said Friday. “We believe some of them may be students at UF or at Santa Fe (College).”

Mayo said Feigin had ties to a Web site that appears to repackage and market the freeware for $8.88 as a tool to catch cheating spouses and other domestic activities like drinking babysitters. Detectives estimated Feigin made fewer than 10 sales.

In a related story, Sophos is reporting that a 47-year-old computer technician in Cyprus has been jailed for four years after he hacked a teenage girl’s Webcam through a Trojan horse virus (which he’d e-mailed to her), took compromising photos of her and then blackmailed the girl by threatening to send the photos to all of her e-mail contacts unless she agreed to pose nude for him.

The girl refused and went to the police. The man was arrested in 2005, but was only sentenced this week.

“Most spyware is designed to steal your identity, your passwords, your banking information—but it is just as easy to program a Trojan horse to take over your webcam,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. “This case highlights that as well as malware being used for financial gain, it can also be used by voyeurs. Everyone needs to treat computer security as paramount importance to ensure they do not fall victim to an internet blackmailer or peeping tom.”

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