Christopher Channer sentenced to 5 Years for Webcam Spying

Watch the entire story on TAMPA (FOX 13) -

A former information technology director of a Tampa advertising firm is facing jail time after some unauthorized "facetime" with a couple of female co-workers.

Thursday, Christopher Channer pleaded guilty to federal charges of intercepting communications after the FBI determined that back in 2010, he tapped into webcams of female employees of the Atlanta office of 22squared from his Tampa office without their knowledge.

They say he gained access through a program on the computers that was designed to track down stolen laptops.

Channer, who according to a plea agreement captured more than 1200 images of the woman, including the exposed breast of one woman, is facing five years in prison.

Channer was an experienced IT director tapping into pre-loaded software on company owned computers, but the experts say you don't need that kind of experience to hack a webcam.

"It doesn't take a genius to be able to figure out how to get into someone else's webcam," said Stephen Pearson of High Tech Crime Institute.

Friday, Pearson gave a chilling example of how easy it could be.

A simple search of "how to hack a webcam" in YouTube turned up seven pages of video tutorials.

"There's plenty of opportunity for someone to download a program or try to exploit or try to use the program," Pearson said.

One video connection with someone with one of those illegal programs could give them access to your webcam without your knowledge.

Not good news for someone like Carl Valeri, who says he uses his webcam daily.

"I travel internationally and Skype is one of the best ways to get in touch with people," said Valeri. "That's pretty scary."

Pearson says the best way to protect yourself is to make sure your computer's virus protection is up to date, but he also had a low-tech solution.

"If you have an embedded camera, put a piece of tape across it," Pearson said.

C-Slide would like to make a suggestion to Mr. Pearson and use a Webcam Cover since TAPE is not functional and will GOOOP-UP your camera.

"SEXTORTIONIST" Luis Mijangos Spy's on Hundres of Women via Webcam

 SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A hacker was able to get inside women's computers, turn on their webcam and record their most private moments.

His name is Luis Mijangos. A 32-year-old former gang member from Santa Ana who turned to computers after a shooting left him paralyzed.

"The minute you turn on your computer, he's watching you,' said Glenda, one of Mijangos' victims."I felt so violated. I got sick."

"You're paranoid. You live the rest of your life just paranoid," said another victim, Samantha. "He started blackmailing me. He would say, 'Don't piss me off, you (expletive).'"

Mijangos went to federal prison two weeks ago for six years for hacking into more than 100 computers. His victims were young women and teenage girls. Dozens of them were minors.
Federal authorities call Mijangos a "Sextortionist."

"I didn't even know that word existed," Mijangos told Eyewitness News in an exclusive interview. "Another made up word from the federal government."

Mijangos convinced Samantha to send him nude photos. She was 17 and he pretended to be her ex-boyfriend.

"It was like 'Hey, this is my new email,' and from there she fall for it," Mijangos said.
Samantha sent him the photos, but she soon realized she had been tricked.

"He blackmailed me with my pictures in an email saying if I didn't give him more pictures, he'd put them up on my Facebook and MySpace (profiles)," Samantha said. "The worst part was not knowing who it was."

Samantha was merely one of many.

"For many of these victims, the impact was devastating," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Christensen, who prosecuted the Mijangos case."Several victims reported irregular behavior with their webcameras. They noticed their cameras were turning off and on."

Mijangos used popular songs on the Internet to sneak viruses into his victim's computers. He said that once they were infected, he had full access to their computers.

"In one instance, a minor victim was having Web sex with her boyfriend. It's happening over the internet," Christensen said."Her boyfriend on one end of Web camera and she is on the other. And (MIjangos) is watching this very intimate activity and he is clicking and he's recording images, over 3,000 of this young girl in this sexually-explicit conduct."

But the so-called sextortionist said he wasn't motivated by sex.  MORE>

Don't be the next victim! Protect your privacy with a webcam cover by c-slide.

Does webcam spying deserve a 10 year prison sentence?

The below article from Forbes Magazine outline the argument that is happening in each state.

Under federal law, the penalty for video voyeurism — what Ravi did in secretly watching Clementi’s sexual encounter via webcam — is just one year in prison or a fine. In New Jersey, the penalty for invasion of privacy is a maximum penalty of five years (something state lawmakers considered revising after the Clementi case). But because of the hate crime charge and the jury’s finding that Clementi might have felt intimidated because of his sexual orientation, Ravi faces up to 10 years in prison (as well as deportation to India, where he was born but hasn’t lived since he was 2).

Setting aside Clementi’s death — which Ravi was not charged with — is a potential 10-year prison sentence for webcam spying just? How much prison time should people get for invasions of privacy?

Laws vary from state to state — invasion of privacy is a misdemeanor in some and a felony in others. What doesn’t vary from state to state is that invasions of privacy happen a lot. They’re just too temptingly easy in the digital age when surveillance equipment is cheap and so much digital information is stored in easy reach. Store managers hide cameras in tanning salon rooms and ladies’ restrooms. Teenagers read each others’ email. Paranoid boyfriends and girlfriends sneak peeks at their significant others’ smartphones to review text messages and call histories. Suspicious spouses secretly place GPS trackers on their loved ones’ cars or install spyware on their computers and phones. But few of those guilty of these invasions of privacy actually get charged for it (or even caught).

As a society, we’re struggling with this every day. We cherish our own privacy, but we love to invade that of other people. And we’re still trying to decide just how important privacy is, and how far we should go legally to protect it.

Earlier this year, in explaining why Scotland Yard dropped its investigation into phone hacking by News of the World journalists, a former Scotland Yard official explained that his agency privileged other safety issues over privacy: “Invasions of privacy are odious, distressing and illegal … but to put it bluntly they don’t kill you, terrorists do,” said Peter Clarke.

That’s why the case of Clementi and Ravi has attracted so much attention. It’s the rare case in which invasion of privacy may have resulted in someone’s death. I emphasize the “may” because it’s far from clear that the webcam spying was the direct cause of Clementi’s suicide; despite the overwhelming amount of digital evidence in the case, we have no way to know what was in Tyler Clementi’s head when he jumped off the George Washington Bridge. And regardless, that is not what Ravi is supposed to be punished for. He is supposed to be sentenced based solely on the actual spying he did, his intimidation of Clementi, and his futile attempts to discard the digital evidence in the case.

Should a twenty-year-old go to prison for 10 years for that? Should he be deported from the country? The judge has those options in sentencing, but they don’t seem just. Ravi’s spying on Clementi’s bedroom encounter was shameful and invasive, but he didn’t push Clementi off of that bridge. We shouldn’t sentence him as if he did.