ADT Installer Hacks Home Cams for Sexual Thrills
A man in his 30s admits to voyeurism via ADT security cams. The Texan “used his position of employment to illegally breach the privacy of numerous people,” says the FBI. He pleaded guilty to computer fraud: He added his personal email address to 220+ customers’ ADT accounts, he admits.
Naturally, though, only the customers he found attractive. Telesforo Aviles also admits he “repeatedly logged into these customers’ accounts in order to view their footage for sexual gratification,” and did it “more than 9,600 times,” according to the DoJ.
But it took at least four years for ADT to spot its employee’s naughtiness. In today’s SB Blogwatch, let’s see if he likes his privacy invaded (in jail).
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Vince’s patches from scratches.
Deep in the Heart of Texas
What’s the buzz? Salvador Hernandez feeds us this—“Tech Hacked Into Cameras To Watch People Undressing And Having Sex”:
Telesforo Aviles, a 35-year-old former employee for the security company ADT, admitted he secretly accessed … the cameras of [220] attractive women, to spy on while they undressed, slept, or had sex. [He did it] 9,600 times over more than four years, according to a guilty plea.
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While working for ADT [which] provides alarms, cameras, and locks, Aviles took note of customer homes where attractive women lived, prosecutors said, then repeatedly gained access to their video feeds for sexual gratification. … The federal charges against Aviles were filed … after multiple ADT customers filed lawsuits against the company in connection to the security breach.
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An ADT spokesperson said … ”After we learned of the unauthorized access, we immediately took preventative steps to ensure this can never happen again, and we personally contacted each of our 220 customers who were impacted. … We remain committed in our attempts to resolve all affected customer concerns.”
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Aviles could face up to five years in prison for … computer fraud, prosecutors said. He has been allowed to remain out of custody [but] is prohibited from working in a job that gives him access to video security systems.
And Jack Morse taps out—“ADT employee admits he watched customers have sex for years”:
It’s the stuff of nightmares. … And yes, his motivations appear to be exactly what you would think.
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According to [the DoJ], the 35-year-old Texas man accomplished this by simply adding himself to the accounts of approximately 200 people, allowing him to remotely watch them at will. … “We are grateful to the Dallas FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for holding Telesforo Aviles responsible for a federal crime,” wrote ADT.
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The horror of Aviles’ actions stands in stark contrast to the ease of which he pulled them off. … It’s a good, albeit extremely distressing, reminder that you’re almost certainly better off not turning your own bedroom into a surveillance state.
This is true. And suifbwish agrees:
Why the hell would someone get naked and have sex in front of a camera that has internet access?
I bet you also agree. Danny 2, too:
It never fails to amaze that people will pay to install cameras in their bedrooms and bathrooms, and yet are horrified when the footage is abused. I mean if you have to have security / sexurity cameras there then face them to the doors and the windows and remove the microphones.
Equally, when some tawdry tech commits thousands of crimes then they either use their own email address, IP address or credit card. I assume not every miscreant is this daft and the exposed morons are the tip of the iceberg.
Privacy begins at home. Although unixcorn says outdoors is fair game:
I have cameras on the outside of my home. … However, I would never want a camera inside my home.
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It just feels creepy. And in this case, it is.
Perhaps “normal” people think different(ly)? Here’s Cuddles:
The thing is, it’s not even a case of not thinking it through. Amazon openly states that they have thousands of people employed for the sole purpose of listening to your recordings, and that those recordings frequently occur at essentially random times.
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Indeed, the fact that unintended activations happen is a large part of the reason they need to have real people listen to them to figure out how to make it happen less often. … So it’s not that no-one has realised what could potentially happen, they willfully ignore what they have explicitly been told is happening.
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Any explanation of the problems is very quickly met with an “Oh well” shrug and everyone just carries on regardless. It’s a fundamental issue with human psychology – we’re utterly terrible at risk assessment and management, and the more abstract the risk is, the worse we are.
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Everyone claims to care about their personal information. But try pointing out that a device they’ve actively paid money for is openly recording them and sending their private conversations to strangers right now, and the brain just blanks the whole thing out and carries on without a care.
What of ADT’s responsibility? gogopuppygogoe didn’t work for ADT, but is far from surprised:
I worked with a home automation company for a few years. The techs there who installed the cameras would check back in on homes with attractive owners using management access. … This is not news at all.
But is ADT to blame? Should the firm be partially responsible for a rogue employee’s actions? Hippoposthumous postulates this hypothesis:
It’s insane that ATD’s software doesn’t have an access history. I can see every device that has logged into my yahoo mail account and has access, and revoke it, but a security company has no feature to tell who is accessing my home security cameras?
So what have we learned? I, for one, welcome our new OverlordQ:
What we learned: ADT has zero internal auditing.
Meanwhile, is the maximum sentence sufficiently maximal? Emily Westerhof thinks not:
5 years definitely isn’t enough.
And Finally:
Dust off your Alison Moyet impression
You have been reading SB Blogwatch by Richi Jennings. Richi curates the best bloggy bits, finest forums, and weirdest websites … so you don’t have to. Hate mail may be directed to @RiCHi or [email protected]. Ask your doctor before reading. Your mileage may vary. E&OE. 30.
Image sauce: Alexandra Gorn (via Unsplash)
