Peeping Tom Malware Scam Results in Global Arrests

MALWARELAND—There's all sorts of malware out there wreaking havoc, but perhaps the creepiest is the kind that gives Peeping Toms the ability to secretly spy on people via the webcams on their computers. It's one thing for the government to do it—they're paid professionals, after all—but regular Joes off the street? Ew. The bad news is that Peeping Tom malware has been in active use, and that people have been seriously victimized, including Miss Teen USA. The good news is that an investigation has just resulted in the arrest of more than 100 creeps. According to Ars Technica, "The coordinated global crackdown coincided with the FBI seizure of bshades.eu, a website that, according to US prosecutors, brazenly sold Blackshades for about $40 and provided technical support for the so-called remote access trojan (RAT). Indictments filed in US District Court in Manhattan named Alex Yücel and Brendan Johnston with distributing, marketing, and supporting the malware and Kyle Fedorek and Marlen Rappa with purchasing it and collectively using it to infect more than 400 people. "Police in at least 15 countries outside of the US announced the arrest of 100 other people in raids that were coordinated to prevent defendants from tipping off each other," it continued. "Word of the raids began circulating over the weekend on hacker forums." The scheme was vast and reportedly included people in a multiplicity of countries, including the United States. According to Reuters, "Police in 16 countries [and 359 homes] across the United States, western Europe and in Chile have seized cash, firearms and drugs and arrested 80 people suspected of peddling virus software believed to have infected hundreds of thousands of computers. "Two days of raids targeted creators, users and sellers of the 'BlackShades' malware, which the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says has been sold to thousands of users in more than 100 countries, infecting more than 500,000 computers. The software allowed users to control other people’s computers," it added. News reports also indicate that "Blackshades" was put to a variety of uses, including fraud and extortion, but money appears to be a lesser motivating factor for many exploiters whose jollies tend more to the secretly voyeuristic. Reuters noted that "BlackShades generated more than $350,000 in sales between September 2010 and April 2014," which seems to us to be a rather paltry amount over four years. But the news service also reports that the "malware was sold to thousands of individuals worldwide," with varying consequences. "In a recent case in the Netherlands," reported Reuters, "an 18-year-old man was detained for infecting at least 2,000 computers with the malware, using the victim’s web cams to take pictures of women and girls." It added, "The FBI’s investigation was aided by one of the co-creators of BlackShades RAT, who agreed to cooperate with authorities after he sold a copy of the malware to an undercover FBI agent." Also seized were "more than 1,900 Internet domain names used to control victims’ computers and a search warrant [was] executed on a BlackShades computer server." Ars Technica Secutiry Editor Dan Goodin has some safety tips. "In some cases," he writes "RATs can be installed by exploiting known vulnerabilities in widely used operating systems or apps. People should ensure their computer software is up to date. Anyone running Microsoft's recently decommissioned Windows XP should stop using it for any Internet-related tasks and upgrade to a safer OS as soon as possible. Security firm Symantec, which said it worked closely with the FBI in targeting Blackshades offenders, has much more information about Blackshades here." We also suggest simply averting your webcam when it is not in use, a simple maneuver that goes doubly so for your family's Kinect or Move cameras, especially if they are in your kid's room!