Hacker arrested for creating 'zombie' computers

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Hacker+arrested+creating+zombie+computers/5125994/story.html

By Joelle Pouliot
Postmedia News
July 19, 2011

LAVAL, Que. -- RCMP investigators arrested a 24-year-old computer hacker 
from Laval on Tuesday, who was apprehended for creating a botnet -- a 
collection of computers infected with a virus and controlled remotely by 
him.

Joseph Mercier, an information security manager for an unidentified 
employer in Quebec, is accused of programming a virus to make a botnet 
infrastructure. Through these programs, police say he was able to infect 
servers in Canada and abroad to build and control a vast network of 
zombie computers.

Although his botnet was predominantly concentrated in Quebec, he also 
took control of servers in Russia, the United Arab Emirates, France and 
the United States. Two school boards in Quebec and his current employer 
are also among his victims.

The suspect infiltrated computers owned by both citizens and businesses. 
He was able to capture what people typed on their keyboards and copy 
files from computers to steal the identity of their users. He could 
upload corrupted files and do mass spam emailing to infect the user's 
contacts.

Police say he could also see and record images from users' webcams.

[...]


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