Be careful what you store on your personal computer. Even if you use a password to prevent your roommate or parents from being able to access your files, you could unwittingly allow a stranger from the other side of the globe to access your computer and use whatever confidential content he could find there to blackmail you.

About 230 people learned this the hard way when a 31–year–old paraplegic from Sta. Ana, California hacked into their computers and used compromising information and photos he found in them to demand more sexually explicit material from the victims.

Mexican national Luis Mijangos was arrested by the FBI for hacking into over 100 computers by disguising malicious codes or malware as downloadable songs and sending these to victims he met online.

Once downloaded, the malware became a portal through which Mijangos was able to take control of the computers and send the malicious codes to the users’ contacts via instant messaging (IM). The 100 computers infected by the malware were used by 230 people, 44 of whom were minors.

Mijangos reportedly searched the victims’ computers for photos or videos showing the users in various states of undress or while performing sexual acts with their partners. He then used the material to blackmail the victims to record and send him more pornographic videos. Mijangos threatened them that he would make the original files he found in their computers public if they refused.

He also hacked email accounts, posed as the victims’ boyfriends and asked the women to make sexually explicit videos.

Some of the victims have been identified to be mostly in Southern California. Federal officials said, however, that some could be from other countries.

FBI agents arrested Mijangos at his home on a charge of extortion, a crime which carries a maximum federal prison sentence of two years. He was charged in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Federal officials said investigators also found evidence that the hacker, who told investigators he worked as a consultant, was also involved in financial fraud.

Mijangos admitted hacking the victims’ computers but that he was only acting on orders from the victims’ boyfriends and husbands to spy on the women to find out if they were cheating on their partners.

Federal investigators said Mijangos found his victims on peer–to–peer networks or P2P. P2P is a communication network which allows users to directly share content or files with other users without the need for a centralized server. The hacker was said to be using the nickname “guicho.”

A woman from Glandale, California was responsible for sparking the investigation that led to Mijangos’ arrest. She had complained to the police that a man she suspected to be her former boyfriend was stalking her.

Leonor Albino writes for Schooley Mitchell Telecom Consultants, North America's largest independent telecom consulting company.