A webcam voyeur who spied on couples having sex has been handed down a 20-week suspended sentence, as commentators warned about the threat of unsecured devices to our privacy.
Stefan Rigo, 34, was arrested by National Crime Agency officers in November last year after the Leeds resident was found to have been using an infamous remote access trojan (RAT) known as ‘BlackShades’ to spy on people.
Around half of the confirmed 14 victims Rigo is said to have spied on were known to him, according to the BBC.
The man pleaded guilty to one count of voyeurism and a computer-related offence, the report claimed.
As well as the suspended sentence, Rigo will be placed on the sex offenders register for seven years and be forced to complete 200 hours of unpaid work within the next 12 months.
Adrian Beck, director of enterprise security program management at Veracode, argued that the threat from compromised connected devices “will only get worse as we introduce more and more smart products into our homes.”
“Veracode’s own research into several consumer Internet of Things devices on the market found that hackers could exploit the Ubi, a smart home enabler, to find out when people were home, which could facilitate a robbery, or even stalking,” he explained.
“Whereas the Wink Relay, a smart home controller, could be turned on by cyber-criminals to listen in on any conversations within earshot of the device, supporting blackmail efforts or capturing business intelligence.”
The software running on such devices must be designed with security in mind from the start to reduce the risk of vulnerabilities creeping into the code which could be exploited, he argued.
“The smart device industry must work with security experts to uphold an appropriate level of device security and ensure domestic privacy is safeguarded against hackers,” Beck concluded.