Largest Hacking Scam in Canadian History

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."

Comments

Really?

[ImprovGuy]

Are there that many computers without anti-virus software or firewalls on the Internet?

Re:Really?

[Brian Gordon]

Are you serious? There are hundreds of millions of PCs in the world (billions?), and the vast majority of them aren't properly secured. Also the vast majority of them have 10 smiley toolbars and take 45 minutes to boot.

Re:Really?

[PrescriptionWarning]

Yes, there are that many Windows machines on the internet.

Re:Really?

[Mister Whirly]

"Let's be honest... the average computer user doesn't know the difference between U2-Somesong.mp3 and U2-SomeSong.exe."

Thank god I do. I would much rather have the malware ridden U2-SomeSong.exe than an actual MP3 by U2. That would just be awful.

Re:Really?

[nopainogain]

and the repair of these poorly maintained PCs paid for my tuition and beer in college.
Long live idiots, for without them, being smart means nothing, and pays less.

Obligatory:

[powerlord]

Blame Canada! ... eh?

From TFA:

[Jurily]

[...] and face charges related to the unauthorized use of computers.

Surely they must mean unauthorized use of other people's computers?

Re:From TFA:

[morgan_greywolf]

I'd assume you're always authorized to use your own computer. Nope. There are times when I'm not authorized to use my own computer. Just ask my wife! ;)

Re:So which is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's 16 Canadian people, or 14 Americans... it's just the exchange rate.

Hardly the first time Canada has caused problems

[elrous0]

Let us not forget Bryan Adams.

There, fixed it for you

[Anonymous Coward]

Are there that many Canadian computers [...] on the Internet?

OK it hardly looks like what you said now, but you mean to say they got both of them?

Eh?

[lbmouse]

I moved here from Canada and they think I'm slow, but I'm really an über-hacker, Eh?

The Unwritten Story...

[Panaqqa]

These arrests were in Quebec. What they are not telling us is that the arrests were REALLY for not hacking into the boxes using both official languages.

Re:Profitable

[calebt3]

they will probably server a couple years Someone needs more coffee.

Re:Hardly the first time Canada has caused problem

[i_ate_god]

As with a lot of our other trash, we simply shipped Celine Dion to America. Now she's your problem, enjoy.

Re:So which is it?

[theheadlessrabbit]

I always wonder why English Canadians are so stupid and racist like you !

there. fixed it for you.

Good job demonstrating that it's the English who are the stupid ones.

Canadian Prisons

[Detritus]

Does Canada have any strict regime prisons? It certainly has the geography for it. Why not ship the script kiddies off to a work camp in the middle of nowhere for a few years.

Not enough coffee again.

[ColdWetDog]

Murderers barely serve jail time up here. Don't hold your breath.

I read it as Moderators ...

For one brief second, I thought there was real justice Up There.

Time to crank the espresso machine up again.

Re:So which is it?

[elrous0]

Well, I certainly didn't mean to insult the French Canadian race.