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| The Spanish authorities have fined a student for
spying via a young woman's webcam. |
A Spanish computer science student has been fined by a Spanish
court for spying on a young woman via her webcam. The court in
Malaga heard how the culprit used the Subseven Trojan horse
to monitor the young woman without her knowledge, and spy on online
conversations she was having with friends.
The student, who has not been identified and is only referred to
by the initials "G.J.A.L", is said to have randomly selected their
victim in January 2002 via the internet, and activated the Subseven
Trojan horse on their computer. Once activated, the Trojan horse
could invisibly monitor email communications, online chat sessions,
and capture footage via the victim's webcam.
The student has been told to pay the victim 3,000 Euros
(approximately £2000) compensation, and sentenced to a further fine
of 3 Euros a day for 12 months. The court denounced the student for
intruding on the victim's privacy, and illictly taking images of
the victim while she was in her house, in front of the
computer.
"It's remarkably simple to spy on another computer user, reading
their emails, watching which websites they visit, and even taking
pictures of them in front of their computer, if they have not taken
the necessary precautions," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "We have seen a dramatic growth
in Trojan horses which allow hackers to spy in this way. Every
computer user should ensure their computer is protected with
up-to-date anti-virus software, a personal firewall, and the very
latest security patches."
Last month the Spanish police arrested a 37-year-old
man for allegedly spying on computer users around the world.
Sophos continues to recommend that businesses ensure their
computers are kept automatically up-to-date with the very latest
anti-virus software.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.