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

Spot the key words

[Silver Sloth]

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

Police won't reveal what the information was used for but investigators estimate that the network profited by as much as $45 million. Hmm... as many as, as much as, or maybe they're inflating the figures to show what macho investigators they are.

Re:Spot the key words

[powerlord]

Nah, nothing so covert. Its simply that, "as many as", sounds a lot better than, "three computers we know about, but we really have no clue" or "we found 5 million deposited in their bank accounts in the last month, but the accounts have been open for nine months, so who knows how much money they could have collected previously".

Alternatively they probably have a pretty good idea of the ranges involved, but hey, high numbers make a better press release.

Re:So which is it?

[Iphtashu Fitz]

Both.

16 people were arrested.

14 of those 16 were arrested on Wednesday.

Re:From TFA:

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd assume you're always authorized to use your own computer.

Then again, in today's climate, maybe not...

Re:Really?

[Anne Thwacks]

the average computer user doesn't know the difference between U2-Somesong.mp3 and U2-SomeSong.exe.

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.