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Man Spying Through Webcams Arrested

Police have arrested a man in Germany over an alleged use of malware for spying the activities of schoolgirls who had their webcams on. Hailing from Aachen, the miscreant seemingly infiltrated about 150 young women's privacy.

The Aachen state prosecutor's spokesman said that the man with the help of a Trojan infected the account of a victim through 'Instant Messaging Computer Program' (ICQ). Thereafter, he discovered other victims with that infected account, as reported by V3 on July 19, 2010.

A member of the data safeguard counselors' association 'Thomas FloB' discovered the scheme when he scrutinized the girls' PCs who observed erratic behavior on their systems, as reported by TheRegister on July 19, 2010.

Mr. FloB frequently goes to schools for holding discussions with students related to data safeguard and intelligent online behavior. He shows them a movie on the way someone can spy on children through the webcams on their computers.

Mr. FloB said that he wished to demonstrate the extent of danger webcams caused, as reported by The Local on July 17, 2010. FloB continued that he became suspicious when (in February 2010) more-and-more girls indicated that such spying was taking place with them.

According to two girls, when they turned off their webcams, the cameras' tiny lights kept on flashing. When FloB scrutinized one PC from the two, he discovered that it had a Trojan that controlled the machine and it proliferated through the ICQ chat program.

Successive examinations located messages originating from hijacked computers reached the hacker's residence. When the police raided his house, they found that several feeds were running live.

FloB further said that he'd gone to 50-60 schools where at least one schoolgirl told him she had the problem of webcams not going out.

Meanwhile, the cases of crooks employing spying software to hijack webcams and monitor young women's activities are known to have occurred in Spain, UK and Cyprus amongst other nations. Remarking about the problem, security specialists urged users to remain careful and see if their PCs went on running even after they weren't in use.

Related article: Man Sues and Wins against ISP for Spamming Mail

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