A former US State Department employee has pleaded guilty to charges of carrying out an international cyber hacking operation to stalk and sexually abuse hundreds of women.

Michael Ford, 36 and married, admitted on Wednesday that he has cyber-stalked many women while an employee of the US State Department at the US embassy in London.

Ford’s indictment says that he had improvised a scheme which included posing as a technical support member of a reputable email company and sending phishing messages to thousands of potential victims, seeking to obtain their passwords.

He then used the passwords to steal his victims’ explicit photos and videos, as well as other personal data, something he would later use to demand additional sexually explicit material from the women, such as footage showing them undressing in changing rooms, pools and stores, according to the US Justice Department.

"I want you to record videos of sexy girls changing. In gyms, clothing stores, pools... You do that, and I disappear," he wrote to one victim, according to court documents.

If victims resisted, Ford would respond with more serious threats that included messages like “don’t worry, it's not like I know where you live.”

The former official even sent explicit photos of his victims to their friends and families, a practice known as "revenge porn."

Ford pleaded guilty to nine counts of cyber stalking, seven counts of computer hacking for extortion purposes and one count of wire fraud. The majority of his criminal activity originated from his computer at the embassy in London.

Ford has been living in Britain since 2005 and was arrested in May while visiting his family in Atlanta, Georgia