A UK judge has sentenced a man for spying on adults and children using Remote Access Trojans (RATs) and stealing explicit material in the process.
The UK National Crime Agency (NCA) said that Robert Davies, a resident of Nottingham first appeared on the radar in 2019 after purchasing and downloading a variety of malware, including crypters – used to encrypt, hide, and obfuscate payloads such as Trojans – and a number of RATs.
RATs can be used to forge a remote link between an attacker and a victim device, steal information, and conduct surveillance through microphones and cameras.
According to law enforcement, the 32-year-old was also a customer of Weleakinfo, an online marketplace that offered stolen credentials. NCA stated that the platform hosted around 12 billion stolen credential records obtained from over 10,000 data breaches.
Weleakinfo’s domain was seized in 2020 in an operation involving the NCA, US Department of Justice (DoJ), and other criminal agencies.
Davies spent years using malware to infect phones and PCs. The RATs were packaged up through crypter software and victims were lured into downloading the malware through private messages.
He used several fake online profiles to mask his identity and contact his victims on various messaging apps in order to build a relationship with them and attack their devices using links sent through the chats. He has been doing this over a number of years.
After executing the malware on a victim’s device, Davies would use his remote access to hit through PCs and handsets, stealing any explicit material stored on them.
In at least one case, he also spied on a teenage girl through her webcam and took indecent images of her without consent.
UK law enforcement arrested Davies three times between 2019 and 2021 and seized a number of devices from his home. The NCA has identified over 30 victims and obtained 28 explicit images and videos of children. Most of the images discovered by police were of females.
Davies pleaded guilty to voyeurism, three counts of possessing indecent images of children, the possession of extreme pornographic content, and a total of 24 Computer Misuse Act offenses.
The sentencing took place this week at Nottingham Crown Court and Davies will spend 26 months in prison. Besides a 10-year sexual harm prevention order, a 10-year restraining order on five victims, and Davies has been placed on the sex offender’s register.
Image Credits : MakeUseOf
Comments