A 63-year-old from England and a 28-year-old man in Scotland, and a 19-year-old man in Finland (all said to be member of the M00P online group) have been arrested and charged of “an international conspiracy to infect computers using viruses attached to unsolicited commercial e-mail,” a spokesman of the English police said.
The groups’ activities were mainly directed at businesses in the U.K. of which computers were being infected with one of three virusses: Stinx, Breplibot or Rykanos. Once infected, the virus would try and hide itself using features from Sony BMG digital rights management or other DRM software.
The group would also try and steal drones previously infected by other groups.
Infected machines (popularly called drones) were being controlled from an IRC channel. Main goal was to collect private data stored on the computer of the infectee.
“We believe the suspects created and adapted viruses with the aim of causing massive infection by spamming. Today’s arrests will send a clear worldwide signal to the authors of malicious software that national borders will not limit the ability and commitment of law enforcement authorities to clamp down on this criminal activity,” a spokesman of the English police said.