Sextortion with a twist: Spyware takes webcam pics of users watching porn

Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width Standard Wide Links Standard Orange Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav Sextortion-based hacking, which hijacks a victim's webcam or blackmails them with nudes they're tricked or coerced into sharing, has long represented one of the most disturbing forms of cybercrime. Now one specimen of widely available spyware has turned that relatively manual crime into an automated feature, detecting when the user is browsing pornography on their PC, screenshotting it, and taking a candid photo of the victim through their webcam.On Wednesday, researchers at security firm Proofpoint published their analysis of an open-source variant of infostealer malware known as Stealerium that the company has seen used in multiple cybercriminal campaigns since May of this year.. *This story was compiled from reports by Ars Technica and Wired.*