17 People Arrested for Attacking 1 Million Computers

Hacking has become more and more organized in the past years. Very rarely will a computer geek be seen sending spam and phishing all by himself, organizations have been formed and there’s even a black market dealing with acquiring security vulnerabilities, paying up to one hundred grand depending on how severe the find is.

The Quebec police reported earlier today that 17 young hackers have been arrested, under charges of attacking nearly one million computers and causing an estimate $45 million in damages since they began their illegal activities. Aged between 17 and 26, all were Quebec residents, and the operation that lead to their capture was started two years ago, in 2006, after complaints from individuals, businesses and government departments had been received. All arrestees were male except for one 19-year-old woman.

The arrests were done in blitzkrieg fashion in 12 cities and towns, including Montreal, and besides the hacking party, the police also took away dozens of hard drives and other computer components from each of the suspects’ homes for further study.

There was no official available to explain exactly what the hacking circle did, but suspicions go towards the usual using of software and hacking methods to disable computers so they could get remote access and steal private information. Denial of service attacks were not unfamiliar to the 17 hackers, as wasn’t spam sending. Roughly, the entire hacker’s arsenal seems to have been used by the young culprits. The targets were spread worldwide, as the police says, computer owners from more than 100 countries falling victims to the cyber criminals.

Quebec Police captain Frederick Gaudreau, lead investigator, urged computer users in numerous occasions to keep their anti-virus software up-to-date and use the network firewalls as they were intended, but his words apparently fell on deaf ears.

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