20-year-old student confesses to creating spy app for Android devices
A 20-year-old Carnegie Mellon University student has pleaded guilty to creating and selling malware that allows third parties to remotely control Google Android phones, including using the phones' cameras to spy on their owners.
Morgan Culbertson, a resident of Churchill, will be sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced on December 2nd of this year. However, it is not yet clear how many devices were infected with the malware after he appeared before a federal judge in Pittsburgh.
It is said that if someone's phone is infected by the app, it can be remotely controlled by third parties and used to secretly spy on its owner, taking pictures of them without their knowledge. The app also records calls, text messages and allows malicious attackers to steal information that owners have downloaded onto their devices.
According to a new report published in IndiaToday, he is one of 12 people charged by US authorities, and the fourth to plead guilty so far, following the shutdown of the global cybercriminal marketplace, Darkode.com.
Nearly 70 more people have been targeted, allegedly using the cybercriminal marketplace in question, where hackers bought and sold malware.
“I committed the crime, I am responsible,” Culbertson said after pleading guilty, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I understand that what I did was wrong and I will take full responsibility. I would like to be able to use my skills in the future to help protect people.”
