Adrian Ringland has been sentenced to ten years in jail.
Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, are warning
home computer users about the potentially devastating consequences
of using improperly secured computers, following news that a hacker
who used computer malware to prey upon young schoolgirls has been
jailed for ten years.
Adrian Ringland, from the British town of Ilkeston, Derbyshire,
admitted forcing schoolgirls to send him explicit pictures after he
infected their computers with a spyware Trojan horse. The
36-year-old posed as a teenager in internet chatrooms, in order to
plant the malware onto girls' PCs. Victims believed they were
opening a picture of their new online friend, but the attached file
was really a Trojan horse that allowed Ringland to take over their
computers. He then used stolen personal information and the ability
to control their computers, to blackmail them into sending more and
more explicit pictures.
"What's horrifying to realise is that it's only a matter of time
before this happens again - these children will not be the last to
be abused via the internet using spyware," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "Similarly, it's also conceivable
that a hacker could blackmail one of their victims into a
face-to-face meeting, using these computer techniques. Home
computer users have got to learn from these incidents and take the
necessary preventative steps to ensure that moving forward, we
won't have to read these horrific stories in the newspapers."
Ringland pleaded
guilty to 20 charges connected to the internet child abuse, two
of indecency with a child, four of blackmail, four of hacking and
10 offences of making indecent photographs of children. Ringland's
victims included a 14-year-old schoolgirl from Manitoba, Canada and
three British girls - two aged 14 and one who was 13 years old.
"It's encouraging to see the court take a hard line on this type
of abuse, but it must be remembered that the internet gives
pedophiles anonymity and access to children all around the world -
made more worrying by the fact that so many parents allow young
children to use computers alone in their bedrooms," continued
Cluley. "Childrens' PCs must be properly protected with the latest
anti-virus software, security patches and firewalls. It is also
essential that young people are taught how to behave safely online,
to avoid being exploited by sick-minded hackers."
Sophos reported on a similar
case last year of a Cypriot man who took compromising pictures
of a teenager via her webcam, and threatened to send the pictures
to her friends unless she posed naked. In February 2005, a Spanish
student was fined
for a similar offence.
Sophos recommends that companies protect their email gateways
with a consolidated solution to defend
against viruses, spyware and spam, as well as secure their desktop
and servers with automatically updated protection.
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.