- Oct 23, 2012
- 12,527
As part of a larger operation that extended over several European countries, five individuals in the UK have been arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) for handling remote access Trojans (RATs) in different cybercriminal activities.
The cyber crooks relied on the malicious software to steal personal information from the computers of the victims or to conduct distributed denial-of service (DDoS) attacks.
The NCA warns that computers are infected with this type of digital threat after the victim is lured to access a malicious link pretending to be a legitimate file.
The RAT can then be used for a variety of malicious actions, such as spying on the victim, stealing sensitive information or turning the system into a bot at the disposal of the attacker.
On Wednesday and Thursday, four men and a woman have been arrested during raids (video below) of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit (NCUU), at their residences in different parts of the country. During the operation, a search warrant was executed on a 19-years-old in Liverpool.
“The illegal use of Remote Access Trojans is a significant cyber crime threat, demanding this kind of strong, coordinated response from international to local UK level. Suspected users of RATs are continuing to find that, despite having no physical contact or interaction with their victims, they can still be identified, tracked down and arrested by the NCA and its partners,” said Andy Archibald, Deputy Director of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit in an official statement.
Similar actions have been taken in the other countries, by national law enforcement units, leading to a total of 15 individuals being arrested. EC3 informed that such operations will continue to be carried out next year.
The action has been initiated by Europol through its European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and consisted in raids over multiple days, in six other countries: Estonia, France, Romania, Latvia, Italy, and Norway.
The cyber crooks relied on the malicious software to steal personal information from the computers of the victims or to conduct distributed denial-of service (DDoS) attacks.
The NCA warns that computers are infected with this type of digital threat after the victim is lured to access a malicious link pretending to be a legitimate file.
The RAT can then be used for a variety of malicious actions, such as spying on the victim, stealing sensitive information or turning the system into a bot at the disposal of the attacker.
On Wednesday and Thursday, four men and a woman have been arrested during raids (video below) of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit (NCUU), at their residences in different parts of the country. During the operation, a search warrant was executed on a 19-years-old in Liverpool.
“The illegal use of Remote Access Trojans is a significant cyber crime threat, demanding this kind of strong, coordinated response from international to local UK level. Suspected users of RATs are continuing to find that, despite having no physical contact or interaction with their victims, they can still be identified, tracked down and arrested by the NCA and its partners,” said Andy Archibald, Deputy Director of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit in an official statement.
Similar actions have been taken in the other countries, by national law enforcement units, leading to a total of 15 individuals being arrested. EC3 informed that such operations will continue to be carried out next year.
The action has been initiated by Europol through its European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and consisted in raids over multiple days, in six other countries: Estonia, France, Romania, Latvia, Italy, and Norway.
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