Facebook help FBI arrest 10 for botnet crimes

The FBI have arrested 10 people who are associated with a crime ring. They made the announcement and said that malware had infected 11 million computer systems and caused more than $850 million in losses.

“The Department of Justice and the FBI, along with international law enforcement partners, announced the arrests of 10 individuals from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, New Zealand, Peru, the United Kingdom, and the United States and the execution of numerous search warrants and interviews.

The operation identified international cyber crime rings that are linked to multiple variants of the Yahos malicious software, or malware, which is linked to more than 11 million compromised computer systems and over $850 million in losses via the Butterfly Botnet, which steals computer users’ credit card, bank account, and other personal identifiable information.”

Yahos is malware that steals bank account information, credit card numbers and other personal information to steal money from the victims. Botnets were set up to distribute the malware code.

Facebook were involved in the fight after the same botnets targeted their servers. The botnet spammed their user base with links which led to the download of the malicious code. This code pretended to be a video plugin which needed to be installed. The FBI have said that Facebook were able to clean the infections and alert their user base.

The 10 people who were arrested have been located in the United States, United Kingdom, Croatia, New Zealand, Peru and Boznia and Herzegovina.

Kitguru says: Let's hope they get a proper punishment for the crimes.

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