In what may be one of the largest cybercrime raids ever, over 90 people in 18 countries have been arrested and charged with using the "Blackshades" remote access software to hijack PCs and steal information from their users.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's press release stated that the Blackshades software has been sold to thousands of people in over 100 countries and has infected over 500,000 PCs worldwide. The software can be used by cyber criminals to infect hard drives, access passwords, turn on webcams and more without the PC owner being aware of those actions. ABC News reports that Blackshades co-creator Michael Hogue, 23, of Maricopa, Arizona, is now helping law enforcement officials with their raids after being arrested in June of 2012.
The software's other co-creator, Alex Yucel, has also been arrested in Moldova and is currently awaiting extradition to the U.S. Over 300 searches have been conducted worldwide for other hackers who have used Blackshades. The FBI have posted a page on their site that has information on how PC owners can tell if their computer has been infected by Blackshades. If that's the case, they are instructed to email a message to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.
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