For one year, a hacker spied on Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf through her computer’s webcam. The man, who went to high school with Wolf, downloaded software for about $40, “creepware,” that let him manipulate her web camera without her knowing. He listened to private conversations she had in her bedroom with her family and took nude photos of her changing clothes.
Wolf is one of half-a-million people who have been victims of creepware. Ninety-seven people were recently arrested for spying with the software, called Blackshades Remote Access Tool. Wolf says the hacker sent her an email with three attachments, notifying her that he had the nude images and threatening to make them public. He also put a tracker on her email account so he could tell when she opened the message, Wolf told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
When Wolf first read the email she says she “threw her iPhone across the room.” “[My mom] and I were in tears and in shock,” she told Cooper. “We couldn’t believe that this really could happen.” The pair contacted the police. She’s since put tape over her webcam and closes her computer whenever she isn’t on it.
Wolf warns others to do the same. The hacker, Jared James Abrahams of Temecula, California, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. “Your bedroom is your most private and intimate space,” Wolf said. “To think that someone was watching me in my bedroom for a year and had all my most intimate moments, he had conversations I had had with my mom and my brother, and knew everything about my life — someone can have access to all of that by your computer.” Here’s Wolf telling her story to CNN’s Anderson Cooper
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