Spanish Hackers Arrested for Cyber Crimes

As per the reports of a Spanish newspaper, a couple of 17 year-olds were apprehended in Alicante on Nov 15 2006, accused of producing a Trojan, which permitted them to take over the webcams at the regional educational institutes. The cyber-terrorists supposedly monitored the entire pupil and took compromising pictures, which were later employed to extort the targets.

Afterwards on that very day, two adult persons were nabbed in Madrid, concerning the initial investigation (titled Operation Praxis). It is assumed that the adults exploited the teenage malware writers to acquire classified information so as to perpetrate a credit card scam. Giving bogus credit card data, both the adults supposedly shopped for goods worth more than 60,000 euros.

Operation Praxis isn't the first instance of webcam-connected cybercrime that the Spanish police have confronted. According to Sophos, the Internet security company, a Spanish computer scholar was penalized for monitoring an adolescent female through her webcam in February 2005, besides watching over her chatroom talks.

Sophos' senior security advisor Carole Theriault stated in a message: "Whether performed for monetary benefit or suspect secret motives, monitoring others through webcams is a ghastly and perverse thing to do. It's probably to shock the naive persons who bear this attack on confidentiality.

"Both the persons accused for producing the trojans may be juveniles, but this isn't any childish joke - these malefactors were involved for the cash, and were ready to extort and rob their mates, in addition to compromising confidential data so that other criminals could join the action."

The Spanish agencies have also made accessible a gratis cleaning device for clients whose systems were attacked by the Trojan.

Theriault appended: "It's inspiring to observe the Spanish agencies countering the anxieties of companies and computer users, and keenly following the architects of all cyber-criminal activities.

"If proved culpable, the Spanish courts will have to deliver a harsh punishment to all involved parties, to make it clear that this kind of online activities will not be bear".

Related article: Spamhaus’ List Of 10 Worst International Spammers

» SPAMfighter News - 11/21/2006