A former employee of American District Telegraph, the home security company, pleaded guilty Thursday to hacking into the accounts of over 200 customers to spy on them, court documents stated.
Telesforo Aviles, 35, allegedly accessed the cameras of women he found attractive and would watch them for sexual gratification, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the North District of Texas, citing plea papers.
“This defendant, entrusted with safeguarding customers’ homes, instead intruded on their most intimate moments,” acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah said in a statement. “We are glad to hold him accountable for this disgusting betrayal of trust.”
Aviles allegedly surreptitiously added his email to customers’ ADT Pulse accounts, which give ADT users access to a real-time feed of their security cameras. Sometimes, he claimed he needed to add his email temporarily to an account in order to “test” their system, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors write, “Over a four and a half year period, Mr. Aviles secretly accessed roughly 200 customer accounts more than 9,600 times without their consent, he admits.”
In October, the federal charge of computer fraud was brought against Aviles. Multiple customers have also filed lawsuits against ADT.
One lawsuit claimed the company “failed to implement adequate procedures that would prevent non-household members from adding non-household email addresses.”
In response to the controversy, in April, the company wrote, “After we learned of the unauthorized access, we immediately took preventative steps to ensure this can never happen again, and we personally contacted each of our 220 customers who were impacted by this incident.”
In three federal lawsuits, the plaintiffs claimed that the company offered them settlements in return for confidentiality agreements after the intrusion was discovered. One customer said she was offered $2,500 and credit for upgraded equipment in return for such an agreement. When she refused to sign one, the company reportedly upped its offer to $50,000.
The company has attempted to have the lawsuits dismissed on the grounds that the contracts with customers require them to settle disputes in private arbitration, BuzzFeed News reported, citing court records.
Aviles could face up to five years in prison.
