Mac technician arrested for installing voyeur spyware

A technician hired to fix Mac computers was found to have betrayed the trust of his female clients when he installed spyware on their machines to take candid photos of the owners. Tech site Computerworld reported on Thursday that police arrested Macintosh specialist Trevor Harwell, 20, after an Apple Genius Bar technician stumbled onto his handiwork. Police said that Harwell, who worked with Los Angeles-area home computer repair company Rezitech, allegedly installed the spy software "Camcapture" on clients' computers. Harwell was arrested on Wednesday, the Computerworld article said. Technician sets up remote voyeur system "While working on repair assignments, the 20-year-old technician secretly set up a complex system that could notify him whenever it was ready to snap a shot using the computer's webcam," the story quoted Sergeant Andrew Goodrich, a spokesman with the Fullerton Police Department in California, as saying. Goodrich said the software would let Harwell's server know that the victim's machine was on. "The server would then notify his smartphone... and then the images were recorded on his home computer," he said. Police said they have found "thousands" of images on Harwell's computers and have identified dozens of victims, all of them women in Los Angeles and Orange County. According to the Computerworld article, Harwell was formerly a student at Biola University, a small Christian university in southern California. It added that many of the victims were Biola students and police suspect Harwell may have compromised university systems as well. Police tipped off by 'weird' messages Police were tipped off as early as last year after a Rezitech customer took her computer into an Apple Genius Bar for servicing. The computer had been displaying "weird" messages, one of which was designed to look like a Mac OS X system warning. "You should fix your internal sensor soon. If unsure what to do, try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor," the "weird" message read. Goodrich said that the Genius Bar technician then found the Camcapture software on this victim's computer and said, "You need to call police." Victims took Macs to the shower Unfortunately, Goodrich said that some victims tricked by the pop-up warning took their computers with them into the shower. The Computerworld article said that the Camcapture software was discreetly hidden in the victims' computers' /Library/WebServer/Documents folders. Rezitech takes action Meanwhile, PC Magazine said that Rezitech has taken "immediate and aggressive action" to cut off Harwell's access to all customer systems and data. "Upon learning of the alleged actions of Mr. Harwell, Rezitech took immediate and aggressive action to ensure that Mr. Harwell's access to all customer systems and data was eliminated. Rezitech has fully cooperated and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement in an effort to assist them in their investigation of this matter," it quoted Rezitech spokesman Travis Austin as saying. "To Rezitech's knowledge, Mr. Harwell did not commit any of the alleged offenses while performing work on behalf of Rezitech or while working on Rezitech computers or the computers of Rezitech customers. Rezitech fully understands the gravity of the charges brought against Mr. Harwell and greatly sympathizes with those who Mr. Harwell is alleged to have victimized," he added. — TJD, GMA News