Malicious software was used to capture photos of Miss Teen USA last year, leading to the arrests of 17 people in the UK and 97 people worldwide.
The software used to capture nude photos of 19 year-old Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf is called Blackshades Remote Access Tool (RAT).
Troy Gill, senior security analyst at AppRiver, told the Telegraph, “Blackshades has been circulating for years now. It is a remote access Trojan that gives the attacker a great deal of control over the victim’s machine. In addition, Blackshades behaves like a ‘worm’ in that it contains self-propagation mechanisms to facilitate its spreading to other machines.”
The case became widely known when Jared James Abrahams, 20, threatened Wolf unless she gave him a nude photo. Abrahams received a sentence of 18 months in prison.
On Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation brought unsealed indictments against several U.S. citizens, according to The Globe and the Mail.
A total of 17 arrests have been made in the UK, and at least 97 people were arrested worldwide in the issue surrounding the malicious software.