Stefan Rigo, 33, admits to having a serious voyeurism addiction, gets a lighter sentence in return, no jail time

Oct 9, 2015 12:09 GMT  ·  By

Stefan Rigo, a 33-year-old UK man living in Leeds, has narrowly avoided going to prison for using the BlackShades RAT (Remote Access Trojan) to hack other people's computers and spy on some while making love.

Rigo was arrested in November 2014, in an internationally-coordinated bust on cyber-crime that was carried out at the same time in the UK, Estonia, France, Romania, Latvia and Norway.

From the investigation that followed, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA), which confiscated Rigo's computer, found recorded movies which the suspect took after he hacked webcams for over 14 victims, half of which he personally knew.

Rigo bought the BlackShades malware of the Dark Web

According to the official investigation, Rigo used one of his former girlfriend's credit card to buy the BlackShades RAT from a black market, which he used to infect other computers, spending from 5 to 12 hours a day spying on his victims.

Besides giving him control over the victim's computer, the BlackShades RAT was also able to steal browser passwords, launch DDoS attacks, install new viruses, and monitor desktop activity.

Apparently, Rigo was only preoccupied with the love life of his friends, and this is what seems to have saved him from a more severe prison sentence.

Rigo received a suspended sentence

On September 16, 2015, Rigo appeared in a Leeds court, where he pled guilty to voyeurism and offenses to the Computer Misuse Act.

In return, he got a suspended sentence of 40 weeks in jail and 200 hours of unpaid community work.

Rigo also had to forfeit his computer equipment and will also have to register as a sex offender with local authorities wherever he goes for the next 7 years.

This is a much lighter sentence than what Alex Yucel (creator and user of the BlackShades RAT) got this past June, when he was convicted to around 5 years of prison time.

Below is a video from the NCA operation that eventually nabbed Rigo as well.