A Carnegie Mellon University student is set to plead guilty to developing and selling malicious software that allowed others to remotely control Google Android smartphones, including using the phones’ cameras to spy on their owners.

The defense attorney for 20-year-old Morgan Culbertson declined comment on today’s change of plea hearing before a federal judge in Pittsburgh.

Culbertson is from Churchill and is one of 12 people living in the United States charged by federal prosecutors in the takedown of the Darkode.com cybercriminal marketplace in July.

The online forum was a place where authorities say computer hackers bought and sold malicious software, and otherwise advertised for help in schemes designed to infect computers and cellphones with software that could cripple or illegally control the devices.