ACLU: Who are the watchers? At least 5,000 are alleged child pornographers, report finds

[Catherina]

3. This is disturbing on so many levels

The technology exists for extreme abuse. All we have is *trust* that webcams in our homes, xboxes, smart TVs, aren't being used against us. This just adds more ugly to it.

... A BBC Radio 5 live investigation found sites where hackers exchanged pictures and videos of people captured on their own webcams without their knowledge.

A police spokeswoman said webcam hackers would be prosecuted.

Commons Home Affairs Committee chairman Keith Vaz urged teachers to talk to pupils about the dangers of using webcams, and computer manufacturers to improve security for users.
...
The BBC Radio 5 live team found a thriving black market where access to compromised computers was bought and sold for a few pence.
...
Hackers are able to gain access to victims' computers using a piece of malicious software (malware) called a remote-access Trojan (Rat).

Many Rats now include a function allowing a hacker to access the victim's webcam without their knowledge.
...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22967622

Webcam spying goes mainstream as Miss Teen USA describes hack
"The light didn't even go on, so I had no idea."

by Nate Anderson - Aug 16 2013, 4:40pm CAST




Wolf detailing her experience.
CNN/WPIX

Webcam hacking has officially gone mainstream with yesterday's revelation that the new Miss Teen USA, Cassidy Wolf, was the victim of a "sextortion" plot in which someone slipped Remote Administration Tool (RAT) software onto her computer and used it to snap (apparently nude) pictures of Wolf in her room. "I wasn’t aware that somebody was watching me (on my webcam)," she told The Today Show. "The light (on the camera) didn’t even go on, so I had no idea."

Wolf said that the hacker tried to extort her, threatening to release the pictures publicly if she didn't follow his demands. The FBI has admitted that it is investigating the case and eventually said that has identified a suspect.

The story itself isn't remarkable—indeed, earlier this year I documented an entire community of RAT users who gather to share tips and pictures of the "slaves" whose machines they have infected—but these kinds of sextortion plots have to date been covered largely in the tech press and in local papers. (Though GQ ran a fine story on sextortionist Luis Mijangos in early 2012 that's well worth a read). Wolf has now taken the story onto the morning TV talk shows, and her interviewers appear to be amazed that such hacks are even possible.

In doing interviews this week for my new book, The Internet Police, many of the questions have focused on sextortion and the use of RAT software. These hacks are such a profound privacy violation—accessing webcams, microphones, and stored files provides the attacker with almost unfettered access to one's private life, thoughts, documents, even conversations—that they routinely generate amazement in interlocutors. As one TV host put it after hearing Wolf's story this week, "Just—wow, that is creepy... Can you believe that?" Or, as a Jezebel writer put it today, "webcam hacking—WHICH I CANNOT BELIEVE IS A REAL THING OH MY GOD."

...

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/webcam-spying-goes-mainstream-as-miss-teen-usa-describes-hack/