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Fbi Resolves Case of Web ‘sextortion’ After 2 Year Investigation

It took two years for the FBI Los Angeles cyber squad to conclude an investigation into a case of cyber intrusion into other peoples computers. Rather than steeling identities or cash funds access, he was using his intrusive hacker’s code for spying and extortion of his victims.

In June, they arrested a 31 year old California man whose name has not been released. He was accused of infecting the victims computers and gaining access to the information contained in it. Many of his victims were teen aged girls. He would find a picture of herself, sometimes nude or semi-nude and would use it to demand more pornographic photos from her.

The girls were mostly shocked and afraid to let their parents or the police know of their problem and so, complied with his requests where reasonably possibleAfter the hacker infected one computer, he used a popular social networking site—and a technique called “spear phishing”—to spread the virus. “It was a social engineering attack,” said Special Agent Tanith Rogers, co-investigator on the case. “The victims were tricked. They had no idea what had happened until it was too late.”

In several instances, the hacker posed online as a young woman’s friend or sister and sent messages with attachments asking if the victim wanted to see a scary video. Because the messages appeared to be from a trusted source, the victims usually didn’t think twice about opening the attachment. When they did, the virus secretly installed itself, and the hacker had total control over their computers—including all files and folders, webcams, and microphones.(FBI story: Web of Victims)

 The report explains that the invasive code is quite simple and can be found online. It reportedly does no harm to the host computer but gives the hacker total access to the computer’s database.

“And this guy was no computer genius,” Agent Kirkpatrick said. “Anybody could do what he did just by watching an online video and following the directions.” (ibid)

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