{"id":11170,"date":"2014-05-20T21:12:10","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T13:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=11170"},"modified":"2025-01-18T21:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T02:41:08","slug":"canada-joins-global-crackdown-on-malware-as-arrests-made-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/05\/20\/canada-joins-global-crackdown-on-malware-as-arrests-made-worldwide\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada joins global crackdown on malware as arrests made worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MONTREAL — Authorities in 16 countries, including Canada, took part in a global crackdown on a sophisticated malware that lets cybercriminals take over a computer and hijack its webcam.<\/p>\n

Charges were announced Monday against at least 97 people worldwide.<\/p>\n

More than 350 properties were raided last week as part of the operation, including 15 in Quebec.<\/p>\n

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Police said they had arrested people suspected of using or distributing the malicious software called BlackShades.<\/p>\n

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Const. Philippe Gravel, an investigator with the RCMP’s Integrated Technological Crime Unit in Quebec, said he expected charges will be laid in Canada as well.<\/p>\n

Gravel says police raided homes on May 13 and 14 in Montreal, Quebec City and elsewhere in the province after obtaining search warrants.<\/p>\n

“We’ve searched the houses, we’ve seized computers and we’re still analyzing the data,” Gravel said. Gravel said he couldn’t comment on whether there would be further raids in Canada.<\/p>\n

Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney issued a statement praising the operation “for preventing further harm from the proliferation of such cybercrime networks.”<\/p>\n

The FBI said the BlackShades Remote Access Tool has been sold since at least 2010 to several thousand users. The agency said one of the program’s co-creators is now co-operating with the government and had provided extensive information.<\/p>\n

The malware lets hackers steal personal information, intercept keystrokes and hijack webcams to make secret recordings of users. BlackShades also can be used to encrypt and lock a computer’s data files, blocking the rightful owners from regaining access unless they pay a ransom.<\/p>\n

Security experts have linked the program to attacks on Syrian dissidents in 2012 and attempts to steal data from more than a dozen French organizations last year. The low cost of the hacking tool has made it increasingly popular across the hacker underground, where variants have been circulating online for years.<\/p>\n

Last year, security firm Symantec said that use of BlackShades was going up, with licenses for the program going for $40 to $100.<\/p>\n

French officials said raids occurred last week after the FBI arrested two BlackShades developers and distributed a list of customers who had purchased the malware.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement co-ordination agencies Europol and Eurojust, based in The Hague, Netherlands, said Monday that police in 13 European countries — Austria, Belgium, Britain, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Moldova, the Netherlands and Switzerland — as well as in Canada, the United States, and Chile raided 359 properties and seized cash, firearms, drugs and more than 1,000 data storage devices.<\/p>\n

The two European agencies declined to provide country-by-country breakdowns of arrests, details of items seized or the specific days when last week’s raids occurred.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the RCMP advised Canadians to make sure an anti-virus software is in place and not to open email from an unknown source.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

With files from The Associated Press<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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