Security News > 2020 > December > British voyeur escapes US extradition over 770 cases of webcam malware
Christopher Taylor, 57, who "Confessed to disguising malware as recognisable and legitimate computer programs", installed Cybergate on more than 770 people's devices, covertly recording "Images of people in various stages of undress and involved in sexual activity" as Westminster Magistrates' Court found.
In spite of claims that Taylor's malware-fuelled spree concerned mainly American citizens, close analysis of his seized laptop by an American expert found that just 7 per cent of his victims were located in the US - with the rest being spread between 37 different countries, including the UK. Taylor himself was suicidal at the thought of being sent to the US, found the judge, as was his disabled wife who had threatened to end her life if her husband, also her main carer, was extradited.
The judge also found that Britain's "Forum bar" was engaged - meaning that Taylor's crimes were suitable to be tried in the UK and not abroad. While at least one of Taylor's victims was at the US's Georgia Tech University, there was no other evidence of direct harm caused by the Wigan grandad. "I do not conclude that because 7 per cent of the identified victims were based in the US then 'most' of the harm from RP's offending occurred there," District Judge Fanning ruled [PDF].
His crimes were committed between 2012 and 2015, with the US extradition request first having been made in February 2016 after Taylor's IP address was traced back to Britain.
Taylor has been discharged from the extradition request.