A 26-year-old Indian-origin engineer who served within the Singapore Air Power was sentenced to 11 months in jail for hacking girls’s social media login particulars to steal their intimate pictures. He used trial and error strategies to entry victims’ accounts after producing attainable login credentials primarily based on his social media particulars. Upon gaining entry, she would seek for intimate pictures saved within the accounts.
Ok Eshwaran, 26, pleaded responsible to 10 costs beneath the Laptop Misuse Act, and an extra 21 costs have been thought of throughout sentencing, Channel Information Asia reported.
Prosecutors revealed that Eshwaran focused victims between 2019 and 2023, sending phishing hyperlinks to 22 victims in an try to steal their login credentials for social media, cloud storage, and e-mail accounts.
Eshwaran focused girls he knew personally.
A courtroom order protected the identities of all victims as a result of sexual nature of the crimes.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Joshua Phang argued that Eshwaran’s crimes have been premeditated and complex, usually posing as a “useful netizen” to achieve the belief of victims.
Phang mentioned Eshwaran despatched phishing hyperlinks with messages claiming her intimate pictures had been leaked on-line.
He usually added a screenshot with a sexual title, often taken from a pornographic web site, claiming it was a screenshot of the sufferer’s intimate picture posted on-line.
In some circumstances, Eshwaran used trial and error strategies to entry victims’ accounts after producing potential login credentials primarily based on their social media particulars.
Gaining entry, he looked for intimate photographs saved within the accounts he wished for his personal sexual gratification, Channel Information Asia reported.
Eshwaran additionally reportedly focused males, posing as them on social media to contact girls believed to be romantically concerned with the boys, requesting intimate pictures.
A MAN OF INDIAN ORIGIN CONTINUED HIS CRIME EVEN WHEN HE WAS ON BAIL
The courtroom heard Eshwaran continued his crimes even whereas on bail and beneath investigation for earlier phishing assaults.
In January 2023, he gained unauthorized entry to the social media accounts of a lady in her 20s. After discovering intimate pictures of her, she despatched him extra phishing hyperlinks to achieve entry to her different on-line accounts.
Authorities traced the Web Protocol (IP) tackle used within the unauthorized entry to Eshwaran’s residence.
A number of victims reported the incidents to the police after realizing they have been being phished or that their accounts had been hacked.
Protection lawyer Mervyn Tan pleaded for leniency, saying it was Eshwaran’s first offense and downplaying the crime as “an act of mischief”.
Tan highlighted Eshwaran’s service as an engineer within the Singapore Air Power and the attainable profession penalties he might face. He added that Eshwaran’s household disapproved of his actions and requested the decide to think about it as a mitigating issue.
The decide agreed with the prosecution’s sentencing advice, citing the seriousness of the crimes.
Eshwaran will probably be formally sentenced on June 19.