Chesco man charged with cyber spying on wife
A Tredyffrin Township man has been accused of cyber spying on his estranged wife.
Jay Anthony Ciccarone, 39, was charged Monday night with unlawful use of a computer and related offenses. He allegedly installed “Web Watcher,” a spyware package, on the woman’s computer, Tredyffrin Township police said.
“As far as I’m concerned, he was really behaving like a stalker,” Sgt. John R. Bailey said. “He violated her trust and her privacy. . . . It seemed like a big chess game to him.”
Police said the investigation began a year ago when the woman, who was in the midst of divorce proceedings with Ciccarone, contacted police because Ciccarone appeared to be monitoring her daily activities.
A forensic examination of the woman’s computer revealed the presence of the spying program, which “works by recording all manner of activity on the computer, including keystroke logging, capturing e-mail and Internet activity,” the criminal complaint said.
The complaint said the program “is designed to be completely ‘stealthed,’ meaning it is automatically hidden from everyone except the people authorized to see it.”
This month, investigators received confirmation from Awareness Technologies, a California company that sells the program, that the software had been purchased by Ciccarone, the complaint said.
Ciccarone, who previously worked in sales for Philly.com, was arraigned Monday night in District Court and released after posting $75,000 cash bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Friday.
Ciccarone filed for divorce in April 2010, a proceeding that has not yet been finalized, according to court records.
Contact staff writer Kathleen Brady Shea at 610-696-3815, kbrady [at] phillynews [dot] com, or @brandywinebits on Twitter. Read her blog, “Chester County Inbox,” at www.philly.com/chescoinbox.
By on 29/09/2011