UK Judge Blocks Extradition of Alleged Webcam Hacker

A British choose has ruled against extraditing to the United States a person accused of hacking into hundreds of webcams all in excess of the entire world to spy on victims without their consent.

Christopher Taylor allegedly duped 772 victims in 39 international locations into downloading personal computer application called Cammy amongst August 2012 and July 2015. 

By putting in the software package, victims unwittingly gave Taylor accessibility to their desktops. He is accused of working with this obtain to set up software that gave him handle in excess of victims’ webcams. 

The 58-calendar year-previous from Wigan was apprehended by Increased Manchester Police in February 2016 following network directors at the Ga Institute of Technology, in Atlanta, observed the program mounted on a laptop related to the university’s laptop network.

Administrators contacted the FBI, who have been able to trace the software back to an IP tackle made use of by Taylor. 

It has been reported that all through an job interview with Larger Manchester Police and FBI agent Roderick Coffin in 2016, Taylor admitted using software to compromise victims’ webcams and to download videos and screenshots of copulating couples and girls undressing. 

When law enforcement searched Taylor’s hard drives, they found 770 images of victims that involved people today who were being in a condition of undress and engaging in sexual action. 

Amongst Taylor’s alleged victims are 52 UK residents and 52 US people. 

The United States requested that Taylor be extradited to Georgia, exactly where he has been billed with wire fraud and two counts of laptop fraud.

In Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday, Taylor’s law firm, Ben Cooper QC, argued that his shopper ought to encounter authorized proceedings in the UK instead than in the United States.

“Most of the harm did not arise in the US and it is no more in the interests of the 722 all over the world victims to carry out the demo in the US than in the UK,” Cooper told the court.

District Judge Michael Fanning purchased Taylor’s discharge from the United States’ extradition ask for.

“I do obtain in your favor,” the choose explained. “I do uncover extradition would not be in the passions of justice.”

Taylor was introduced on bail pending the US government’s appeal.

Some parts of this posting are sourced from:
www.infosecurity-magazine.com