Hacking!!!

Hacking, sounds fun! Not when it’s illegal and you can get arrested for it. That’s what happened to three Spaniards that were suspected of infecting 13 million computers that contained a suspicious program. The program allowed them to steal information. It would have been able to steal personal and financial data worldwide. This was reported by Spain’s Civil Guard on Wednesday. Teaming up the Civil Guards worked with the FBI and computer security firms in Canada, The United States and Spain to inspect. A Spanish official even called it the world’s biggest network of virus-infected computers. The Civil Guards’ statement read that the suspects "copied personal and financial data of individuals, companies and official institutions in more than 190 countries." Additionally, the virus would have those who were controlling the system to mount a large cyber attack from the infected computers. Let me remind you that the virus already is able to gain access to personal and financial information. While searching through the computers the police found computer and personal information from more than 80,000 users. The suspects are the ages of 31, 30, and 25. They were arrested last week. They were arrested in Spain’s northern Vizcaya province, northwest Coruna province and southeast Murcia province, respectively. There were no identities released by authorities or any other details about them. May was when the computer hacking was first detected by the Canadian firm Defence Intelligence, the statement says that they quickly enlisted the aid of Spain’s Panda Security firm and the Georgia Tech Information Security Center located in Atlanta, Georgia. Sooner or later the FBI determined that there was a Spanish Citizen involved. They alerted the Civil Guards. The suspects had brought virus software to use in their alleged scheme, authorities concluded. Investigators had identified basically all of the control channels for the pirated computer network, by December. They also “proceeded in a coordinated way internationally to block the domains that were being used," the statement said. Two U.S. and one Spanish service providers were mainly used. An act of revenge took place, when a cyberattack against the Canadian firm investigating them. This attack that was preformed, seriously affected its internet service provider and left numerous of clients without connection, this also included Canadian universities and government offices. The counterattack helped in a way. This allowed the investigators to figure out the remaining of the control channels for the alleged scheme, and this was able to be blocked also finally. Only thing that was not blocked were a fairly small number of computers. First to be found was the 31 year old suspect, discovered while using the name “hamlet1917.” He was arrested in the town of Balmaseda, Vizcaya. “A search of the computers found there led to the other two suspects, the statement said.” The suspects will appear in front of Judge Baltasar Garzon at the Spain National Court in Madrid, this is because of the board implications of the virus-infected computers. Authorities are still investigating whether or not a fourth suspect might be involved.