Almost 100 Arrested In Worldwide Swoop On Blackshades Malware 87
MattSparkes (950531) writes "Law enforcement around the world has teamed-up to arrest 97 for buying/using Blackshades malware, which can remotely seize control of a victim's computer, access documents, record keystrokes and even activate their webcam to take surreptitious pictures and video. It is also able to encrypt files in order to extract a ransom for their release. Blackshades RAT is a commercial product costing less than $200 which was marketed as a tool to test network security. However, it is widely used by hackers and was even said by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to have been used against Syrian activists by the government in 2012."
Re:Today's Best Slashvertisement? (Score:3, Informative)
I thought, "I bet I can google this and get it for free." I was right.
Re:it is actually illegal (Score:5, Informative)
During the course of a worldwide investigation, creators, sellers and users of BlackShades malware were targeted by judicial and law enforcement authorities in 16 different countries.
http://www.eurojust.europa.eu/... [europa.eu]
So they didn't go after people that bought it. They went after the people that wrote it, sold it or used it. If you bought it but didn't use it, they aren't going after you... yet. I suspect that what happened here was the authors put a backdoor into their backdoor software... which the users should have expected... lol. When they got raided, either law enforcement found it or they made a deal with the authors.