Dozens Arrested in Global Hacker Crackdown

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AMSTERDAM (AP) — Acting on an FBI tipoff, police worldwide have arrested 97 people in 16 countries suspected of developing, distributing or using malicious software called BlackShades that allows criminals to gain surreptitious control of personal computers, European law enforcement officials announced Monday.


The malware allows hackers to steal personal information, intercept keystrokes and hijack webcams to make secret recordings of their users. BlackShades also can be used to encrypt and lock a computer’s data files, blocking the rightful owners from regaining access unless they pay a ransom.


French officials said last week’s raids happened after the FBI arrested two BlackShades developers and distributed a list of their international customers who purchased the malware.

Coordination agencies Europol and Eurojust, based in The Hague, Netherlands, said Monday that police in 13 European countries — Austria, Belgium, Britain, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Moldova, the Netherlands and Switzerland — as well as in the United States, Canada and Chile raided 359 properties and seized cash, firearms, drugs and more than 1,000 data storage devices.

In a BlackShades-related related investigation before the latest global arrests, Dutch police earlier this year arrested a 18-year-old man for using the malware to take pictures of women and girls using about 2,000 computers.