Security news31 May 2007
Surfing sex offender caught with mum's spyware, Sophos reports Man charged with possession of child pornography
Spyware is usually used by cybercriminals to steal from innocent computer users.
IT security and control firm Sophos is reminding computer users of the potential dangers of meeting up with online friends following reports that a 26-year-old American man has been charged for possession of child pornography.
Authorities in the US first became aware of Jason Bower's illegal activities after an English woman planted spyware on her 15-year-old son's computer to track his internet activity. Sophos experts note that spyware, normally used by financially-motivated criminals in cyberattacks, may have prevented an underage teenager from having sex with an adult in this case.
According to reports, Bower had been exchanging sexually explicit pictures and videos with an underage boy in the UK, and was arrested as he attempted to board a plane to England, where he allegedly planned to meet and have sex with the teenager.
After planting keylogging software on the boy's computer, his mother discovered the nature of Bower's relationship with her son, and alerted police in the UK, who in turn informed Immigration and Customs in the US. Bower, who will be sentenced in September, is likely to serve a minimum of five years in prison.
"There are plenty of companies marketing spyware software as a way for parents to keep an eye on children, but for those worried as to what their kids are doing online the best advice may simply be to ensure that the PC is in a place where other members of the family are present," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "People need to think very carefully about using spyware to monitor other internet users' activity, as they could end up getting in trouble with the law themselves."
- Find out more about how to protect children from online threats at www.getsafeonline.org
- Find out about the Virtual Global Taskforce - a group of police forces working around the world to fight online child abuse
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About Sophos
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.
