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Chris Peredun - February 21, 2008 9:42 AM

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20 comment(s) - last by ShadowZERO.. on Feb 25 at 10:36 AM

Sixteen charged in Quebec-based worldwide phishing/hacking ring

Police in the Canadian province of Quebec are celebrating the arrest of sixteen members of an "international hacking network" -- the biggest bust in the country's national history. Raids on several houses were conducted on Wednesday morning, with the sixteen arrested Canadians being between 17 and 26 years of age.

According to Quebec Provincial Police captain Frederick Gaudreau, nearly one million computers were taken control of by this group. Most of the compromised systems were located in Poland and Brazil, but a smaller number in the United States and other areas of Canada were also affected.

Several government computers were compromised, but police would not comment on what data records were exposed.

The infected machines were used to host phishing sites -- investigators estimate the total value of the information gathered at "as much as $45 million" but no further information was provided.

Police also would not comment on how the ring was able to obtain the one million computers, though past large scale hacks are traditionally initiated via worms and other phishing scams. The hacked machines are then used to phish and scam their way to more computers.

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Good riddance.

By iFX on 2/21/2008 3:28:50 PM , Rating: 3

Lets hope this becomes an example for other would be hackers.

RE: Good riddance.

By EndPCNoise on 2/21/2008 3:52:39 PM , Rating: 3

Not ALL hackers are out to do bad things. There are hackers who find security holes in software and hardware, and then report these holes to reputable organizations, so that the holes may be correctly patched.

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RE: Good riddance.

By Master Kenobi

(blog) on 2/21/2008 4:50:30 PM , Rating: 2

Those hackers are generally working for a security firm and are hired for specifically that purpose.

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RE: Good riddance.

By Etsp on 2/21/2008 4:54:11 PM , Rating: 3

That depends on how they find these holes. If they find them by poking around a live environment without permission, that isn't righteous by any means. It would be like lock picking someone's house to see where you could go inside, while not intending to take or break anything that you find.

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RE: Good riddance.

By Nik00117 on 2/21/2008 5:31:36 PM , Rating: 3

Actually it is ethical.

If lets say you forget to fully lock your a front door and a crook breaks in and goes and tells yout hat you didn't shut your front door would you be truly that upset? HE simply tested your security. Upon the final result he gave you the information on how to fix it. Thats a good thing

My friends dad actually got a job like that, hes a more serious hacker person who now has a very nice comfy job working for a secuirty firm. Well one day he was hacking and he found a loophole in some companies secuirty. So he notified the company of the situation. To which the company responded with a job offer. They said if you can break it our systems we figure you can fix it so you can't break it.

There are white hat hackers, and black hat hackers. White hats do it for like a job or just for fun to test their ksills

Black hat have however motives invovled.

I bet more black hats get caught then white hat, mainly because black hats being crimials are more interested in the loot then the actual crime. White hat being more interested in the crime then the loot pays attention to the crime.

But good job for cananda, I don't like hackers who use their skills for bad. They could of made so much more money by simply working for a company or somethign.

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RE: Good riddance.

By marsbound2024 on 2/21/2008 6:09:16 PM , Rating: 2

"If lets say you forget to fully lock your a front door and a crook breaks in and goes and tells yout hat you didn't shut your front door would you be truly that upset? HE simply tested your security. Upon the final result he gave you the information on how to fix it. Thats a good thing"

I suppose you'll also find nothing wrong with someone shooting a police officer only to tell that officer "Hey! You didn't wear a bullet-proof vest. Better fix that." ;) Oh well, simply testing that officer's security.

Nonetheless, I do agree with you where testing network security is more than ethical. Nobody gets hurt and no information gets lost. It's like finding weaknesses in a fort's defenses. As long as YOU find them, you can remedy them.

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RE: Good riddance.

By agentjka03 on 2/21/2008 6:29:30 PM , Rating: 2

I'd say this is a bad comparison. It's probably closer to someone going through the unlocked fence or gate to your front door, then choosing how to proceed from there. The ethical person would knock on your front door and inform you that your gate was unlocked. Others may decide to walk right into your house and "make themselves at home" or even resort to vandalism or burglary.

I do not see an ethical problem with someone hacking into the NSA or the CIA etc, if for no other reason than to keep those agencies on their toes. Would we rather these people not test their skills and our systems, so that someone with more malicious intent is free to do so?

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RE: Good riddance.

By Hexus on 2/22/2008 12:20:28 PM , Rating: 2

Comparing gunning down an officer, to petty lockpicking is a gross lack of logic, it's only an analogy, not to be taken literally, the fact you make such a blatant and uninformed statment shows you obviously have a bias opinion of hackers. Like stated before, many, many hackers infiltrate various companies' security and then notify them, and it's a common practice to hire them.

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RE: Good riddance.

By pauluskc on 2/22/2008 3:14:01 PM , Rating: 2

don't forget the fuzzy green hat hackers too!

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RE: Good riddance.

By ShadowZERO on 2/25/2008 10:36:14 AM , Rating: 2

"...To which the company responded with a job offer..."

Right before this, I'm sure the promptly fired the last guy they had doing their security. Shows where a little dedication in reverse-engineering computer security software can get ya don't it folks?

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RE: Good riddance.

By iFX on 2/21/08, Rating: -1

RE: Good riddance.

By agentjka03 on 2/21/2008 6:31:08 PM , Rating: 3

"You are either with us, or you are with the enemy"

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RE: Good riddance.

By pauluskc on 2/22/2008 3:16:28 PM , Rating: 2

"keep your friends close and your enemies closer"

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RE: Good riddance.

By TheDiceman on 2/22/2008 10:20:36 AM , Rating: 2

Wow, aren't you just a little prejudice. I know a number of "hackers" and they just do it to kill time. They never hurt anyone, steal anything or bring down any systems, they just like to see if they can get in. One of them even has reported security problems before, but the company ignored him.

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RE: Good riddance.

By lexluthermiester on 2/22/2008 2:49:19 PM , Rating: 2

I'd like to make a clarification. These punks were crackers. Hackers are anyone who fiddles around with software or hardware out of curiosity or in an effort to improve or modify how it works. Crackers are those who use similar methods to cause problems, commit crimes or any other illicit act. Am a hacker? Hell yes! Not a very good one, but yes. Do I effort to steal money or information to which I should not have access? No. I would further define, but I think you have the idea...

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Criminal Hackers

By bldckstark on 2/22/2008 12:52:11 PM , Rating: 2

I wish we could consistently get the terminology correct. A hacker is someone who modifes code for legal purposes. A criminal hacker (Cracker) is someone who modifies code and systems for criminal purposes, and is usually called a cracker. It would help if these two terms were used correctly.

Yes,I know there are other uses for the word cracker. Most of them associated with computers are a verb, or adjective. I am a proponent of correctly using the noun.

RE: Criminal Hackers

By lexluthermiester on 2/22/2008 2:52:32 PM , Rating: 2

Great minds think alike.... LOL!

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RE: Criminal Hackers

By Etsp on 2/23/2008 3:04:15 PM , Rating: 2

How do you cracker something?

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RE: Criminal Hackers

By SlyNine on 2/24/2008 9:22:28 PM , Rating: 2

Diction is divided into two types: Denotation is the literal meaning of a word. Connotation is the attitudes and feelings associated with a word.

A words meaning often changes with the times.

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Hackers

By Alazar on 2/22/2008 12:30:17 PM , Rating: 2

Large scale computer companies, MMORPG companies, and so many other various net based, large-scale corporations enlist the help of professional hackers. Net security providers are a large employer of hackers. These companies NEED hackers. How can you claim to provide high level security without a person who knows how to put it through rigorous, real life testing.

It's like a car. You can't claim it has good handling unless you've got someone who puts it through the tests to so if it does, in fact, have good handling.