Largest Hacking Scam in Canadian History 211
vieux schnock writes "Police raided several homes across Quebec on Wednesday and arrested 16 people in their investigation, which they say uncovered the largest hacking scam in Canadian history. (...) The hackers collaborated online to attack and take control of as many as one million computers around the world that were not equipped with anti-virus software or firewalls."
Spot the key words (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Spot the key words (Score:5, Insightful)
Alternatively they probably have a pretty good idea of the ranges involved, but hey, high numbers make a better press release.
why does law enforcement inflate numbers? (Score:1, Insightful)
now we have some yahoos in canada who controlled "1 million computers and made $45 million in profit!"
up next: "the police looked in the suspect's glove compartment and found a small bag of marijuana, with an estimated street value as high as the GNP of Australia! additionally, the suspect's cellphone was found to have cracked and controlled the computer networks of the NSA and Los Alamos! he used this vast network of hacked machines to make $20 brazilian dollars by cheating stay at home moms in a get-rich-quick scam! the suspect is also believed to be al qaeda's number 2 commander in iraq!"
Re:So which is it? (Score:5, Insightful)
16 people were arrested.
14 of those 16 were arrested on Wednesday.
Sounds like advertising. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Um, this is Slashdot... (Score:0, Insightful)
That summary needs fixing. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:From TFA: (Score:5, Insightful)
Then again, in today's climate, maybe not...
Sensationalism (Score:1, Insightful)
n.
A fraudulent business scheme; a swindle.
tr.v. scammed, scamming, scams
To defraud; swindle.
So, who was defrauded or swindled in this case ?
"Script Kiddies Busted" would have been more appropriate.
Re:That summary needs fixing. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
To make matters worse, some attacks may even occur if you are dealing with safe file types, like a PNG [microsoft.com] or even PDF [softpedia.com]. Some security problems exist due to the user's ignorance or idiocy but "some" isn't exactly the same thing as "all".
Re:Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
The average user cannot tell there is a difference - because the Windows default is to hide the extension!
It may be criminally insane, but its the default.
Re:That summary needs fixing. (Score:3, Insightful)
All but the fanciest grocery stores will have expired stuff on the shelves if you look well enough. You have to be selective in what food you pick, make sure to read the expiration date, cook your meat to 160-170 degrees, etc.
Nothing works out of the box anymore. The only difference is that software doesnt always have to be recalled, it can be patched. But if you don't say informed, the ground beef you have in your fridge that got recalled...you'll never know it was. Thats "common sense" in this day and age.
Re:Really? (Score:2, Insightful)
It may be criminally insane, but its the default.
Who else here has ever been trying to walk someone though a software install over the phone and said "Now double click 'Setup'"...and they respond "which one"...because of course there's setup.exe, setup.ini, etc etc...just awful.
Prison...really? (Score:2, Insightful)
The people who got hacked are facing a maximum of 10 years in prison but with Québec's system, they really do 1/6 of this time so it's not that bad..