Handyman rigs webcams to spy on his female acquaintances

A 30-year-old was convicted on three counts of unauthorized access to computer material and two counts of voyeurism, following an investigation prompted by fishy software found on a victim’s machine.

The peeping Tom, Andrew Meldrum, had been watching one of his targets for at least 15 months. 

The ogling came to light after a 21-year-old female found an application that could enable outsiders to remotely access her webcam.

In November 2012, she contacted police.

“The woman suspected Meldrum right off the bat, given that he'd recently ‘helped’ her with her computer,” Sophos reports. “Word got around. The victim told another woman, who was then aged 23, about the tampering. That woman, who also knew Meldrum, found remote access software on her computer, too, and she also told police.”

The second victim warned another woman who she knew was acquainted with the man.

“That third victim, age 28, checked her computer. Gee, what a surprise - there was remote-access software on hers, too,” Sophos reports.

The software had likely been on this third woman's computer for around 15 months, according to police.

ThreatWatch is a regularly updated catalog of data breaches successfully striking every sector of the globe, as reported by journalists, researchers and the victims themselves.