The suspects age ranges from 17 to 26 years old. The antivirus used in this case were the Sûreté du Québec and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which conducted “scans” and arrest in 12 towns. Seven of suspects have been charged with with illegally obtaining computer services, illegally possessing computer passwords, and hacking.
Also, the police confiscated their PCs during the raids, and stated that the info found on the machines might enable the prosecutors to complete their list with more charges.
The suspects are currently looking up to a sentence of up to 10 years behind bars, if convicted, stated Captain Frédérick Gaudreau.
"The Canadian authorities should be applauded for investigating organized cybercrime, which is blighting computer users around the world," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Huge amounts of money can be made by hackers running zombie botnets: installing adware, renting out the network to launch blackmailing DDoS attacks against websites, or using them to steal identities or spew out spam campaigns. Running an illegal botnet is a serious crime, and those found guilty must be punished appropriately."
According to the authorities, the arrested have been running a zombie network of around one million computers located in 100 countries around the globe.