A hacker working for a security firm got the shock of their life last month when they stumbled across what appeared to be a Middlebury College employee’s stash of child pornography while hunting for vulnerable computers.
The hacker was faced with a moral quandary: alert law enforcement to their findings and risk criminal charges for hacking—or say nothing and live with a guilty conscience knowing a possible child abuser is on the prowl.
But when they found a picture of the alleged voyeur’s driver’s license on his computer, they decided to take a chance with law enforcement and turn the man in, according to an affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast.
ADVERTISEMENT
By doing so, the hacker revealed they had broken into the computer and had likely violated the law—but the gamble paid off.
Prosecutors eventually offered the hacker immunity for their cooperation, and the alleged voyeur, Scott I. Remick, a senior technology specialist for Middlebury College in Vermont, was arrested Wednesday for possessing child porn, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Beast. The court documents, unsealed late Wednesday, do not identify the security researcher, whose involvement is somewhat convoluted.
Upon finding the explicit images, the hacker, who was hunting for machines vulnerable to a specific kind of flaw as part of their work with a security research group, established backdoor access to Remick’s computer before handing off the case to law enforcement. They claimed they did so out of a fear that law enforcement officials might not be able to properly investigate the child pornography if they lost access to the trove of pornographic files.
Then, the hacker submitted a report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that they observed Remick communicating with a young girl named “Jeanie” over a Tor network. The researcher told NCMEC they suspected Remick was either sharing explicit images with Jeanie or in a relationship with her, according to the affidavit.
“What I saw shook me to my core and I honestly could have never imagined being here in this position,” the researcher said in a note to law enforcement, according to the unsealed affidavit. “I am not sure how to handle this and I am attempting to do the moral thing here.”
In the end, the researcher made a deal with law enforcement for immunity in this case, and will likely walk away unscathed. The man who allegedly has been storing child porn files on his hard drive may not escape scrutiny so easily. Remick’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment, and Remick did not return a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Middlebury College declined to comment on the case specifically, but told The Daily Beast: “Middlebury complies with and cooperates in all matters involving lawful requests from authorities. In the rare event of an arrest, we ordinarily place the employee on leave and take other appropriate steps while we gather more information.”
An email for comment to Remick’s work email address indicated he is currently on leave. The Department of Justice declined to comment on the case.
