ADT employee pleads guilty for accessing cameras installed by the company

A former ADT employee pleads guilty for accessing the cameras he installed at the home of the company’s customers in the Dallas area.

Telesforo Aviles (35) is a former ADT employee that pleaded for accessing the cameras he installed at the home of the company’s customers.

Every time the man worked at the home of a customer in the Dallas area where an attractive woman was living, he added his personal email address to customers’ “ADT Pulse” accounts, to have real-time access to the video feeds from the cameras.

“This defendant, entrusted with safeguarding customers’ homes, instead intruded on their most intimate moments,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah. “We are glad to hold him accountable for this disgusting betrayal of trust.”

Aviles faces up to five years in federal prison for having illegally accessed roughly 200 accounts more than 9,600 times, in a period of more than four years.

Mr. Aviles admitted having regularly added his own email address to customers’ ADT Pulse accounts to watch women naked and couples engaged in sexual activity for his own sexual gratification, they said.

“The defendant used his position of employment to illegally breach the privacy of numerous people. The FBI works with our law enforcement partners to thoroughly investigate all cyber intrusions and hold criminals accountable for their actions,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew J. DeSarno.

ADT discovered Aviles’s activity on April 23 when a customer informed the company of the presence of an unauthorized email on their ADT account.

In April 2020, ADT terminated Aviles and reported him to law enforcement.

“Recently, a customer called to let us know there was an unauthorized email on their ADT account. The security and privacy of our customers is our top priority, and we immediately began an internal investigation.” reads a statement published by the company. “Unfortunately, our investigation revealed that during a service visit, one of our Dallas-area technicians had added his personal email address to this customer’s account to gain unauthorized access, and he had done the same thing during service visits with other customers in the Dallas area.”

The company contacted the impacted customers and apologized to them.

“We apologize to the customers affected by the actions of this former employee and deeply regret this incident,” ADT’s statement said. “The ADT mission is to help protect and connect people with the things they love most. Fully earning this trust back may take time, but nothing is more important to us and to those who have served our customers under the ADT banner for the last 145 years.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, privacy)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.