Blackshades Malware Prompts Worldwide Law Enforcement Operation

Blackshades Malware Prompts Worldwide Law Enforcement Operation

Law enforcement officials in a number of countries including the FBI have arrested a number of people in connection to Blackshades malicious software. The software gives users the ability to take control of computers and web cams of other people.

The biggest international cyber operation resulted to raids in eighteen countries at the houses of people who supposedly purchased the software, which has a price tag of $40 per download. Among the targets of the raids were the administrators and creators of the malware.

Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf was caught in an extortion case using the software last year. Wolf received an email from someone who claimed to have nude pictures of the beauty queen, and threatened to post them online unless she gives more photos or videos of her.

The suspect, Jared James Abrahams, was arrested and sentence to eighteen months in prison. The capabilities of Blackshades were described in a criminal complaint. It indicated that the remote access tool (RAT) will give the user control and access to the computer of the victim. It included recording keystrokes, view documents and files, steal passwords, and activate the web cam of the target computer.

An investigation by the FBI revealed that the malware was purchased by thousands of users in over one hundred countries and infected over 500,000 computers around the world.

Nearly anyone is capable of using the malware, according to FBI Assistant Director George Venizelos. He said the agency is dealing with the people using the malware, its creators, and the administrators.

Two creators of Blackshades were already identified by law enforcers, Michael Hogue and Alex Yucei. Hogue was arrested in 2012 and is already cooperating with law enforcers. On the other hand, Yucel was arrested in 2013. He is awaiting extradition to the US.

Attorney General Eric Holder said they are already working on cyber enforcement activities around the world in connection to the use of Blackshades.

Posted by James Fried on Wednesday May 21 2014, 8:22 AM EDT. Ref: ABC News. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0