Man charged with using webcam to spy on women

A student has been charged with using malware to secretly film women using their own laptop webcams.

Craig Matthew Feigin, 23, has been charged with modifying computer data and disrupting or denying computer system services after he installed two programs on the computer of a woman living in Gainesville, Florida.

Police say that Feigin used the code to take videos of Marisel Garcia and others in various states of undress and from them amassed a 20,000 picture collection and stored it on a server in Eastern Europe. It is not known if he sold any of the material.

The woman had taken her computer to Feigin, a student at the University of Florida, because it had been running slowly and he was known to be good with computers. However, after she got the laptop back she started to notice it behaving oddly.

The built-in webcam began activating automatically and she noticed the battery was running down more quickly. She took the computer to another friend who found the software and they went to the police.

"He was shocked. He was totally surprised to be arrested," Detective Mayo told the Gainsville Sun.

"We have eight or nine more potential victims that we know of now. We believe some of them may be students at UF or at Santa Fe [College]."

Feigin personally developed the software, called Web Cam Spy Hacker, to commit the crime and used it in conjunction with a remote access application Log Me In to take the footage.

He had tried to market the package as a tool for checking up on spouses or babysitters but had had little success, selling fewer than 10 copies. Police traced his address from the website he used to sell the code.