17 held in mass data theft probe

Seventeen Brits have been arrested in the first ever UK-wide cyber crime operation targeting people alleged to have used malicious software to take over computers and steal 200,000 usernames and passwords.
Coordinated by the National Crime Agency, a week of arrests, searches and seizures has involved nearly every UK Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU), as well as Police Scotland and the Metropolitan Police.
The UK investigation forms part of global activity targeting the developers and prolific users of Blackshades, a set of malware tools sold online for under £100.
The most common Blackshades product is a Remote Access Tool (RAT), which enables cyber criminals to remotely take over and control the operations of an infected computer.
It can be used to access personal files and documents, instruct the victim’s computer to help commit a Distributed Denial of Service (Ddos) attack and even infect other computers via peer-to-peer communications.
The Blackshades inventory also includes a Password Recovery Application designed to capture usernames and passwords inputted on a victim’s machine. The criminal can then view the stolen data in a similar way to an email inbox.
The 17 British men were amount 97 people in 16 countries arrested on suspicion of developing, distributing or using Blackshades. They were arrested in Derbyshire, Birmingham, Halesowen, Wolverhampton and Newcastle-under-Lyme, Brixham, Andover, Ashford, Liverpool, Manchester, Warrington, Woodford Green, St Andrews, Glasgow, Leeds, Humberside and London.
Deputy director of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit Andy Archibald said: “Criminals throughout the UK and across the world are finding out that committing crimes remotely offers no protection from arrest. The unique scale of this cyber operation shows what can happen when law enforcement agencies at local, national and international level work together to tackle the perpetrators and help keep people safe.”
Just eight weeks ago a cyber gang which hijacked computers at branches of Barclays and Santander to steal personal data and fund a luxury shopping spree was jailed for a total of nearly 30 years.

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