After a week of speculation, it would appear that the rumors are true: European law enforcement agencies have coordinated with the FBI to crackdown on international cybercrime, specifically targeting individuals who have downloaded the BlackShades remote administration tool (RAT).
Translation? The world is a little bit more Malware-Free.
What is BlackShades?
BlackShades is a remote administration tool, or a RAT. RATs allow their users to “remotely administrate” on other computers. In many cases, such as tech support or software demonstrations, RATs do indeed have legitimate use: they allow one user to help another or to show them how to use a new software tool. RATs can, however, also be used to commit cybercrime.
RATs become illegal when they are installed on target computers without consent. The BlackShades RAT is a hacking tool specifically designed to do just that and to, in turn, allow its user to perform a number of malicious actions. BlackShades is a versatile tool that can be used to spy on targets and to steal personal information. It allows for remote access to a victim’s files, it can log keystrokes, it can activate a victim’s webcam, it can be used to carry out a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) on another victim, and it can be used to install more malware.
Typically, BlackShades can be purchased on underground hacker forums for a mere $40-100.
Who was arrested?
Early reports indicate that between 81-97 people have been arrested by the FBI and various European law enforcement agencies, on the premise of downloading BlackShades. At least 300 homes in many countries across the world, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States were raided. Raids followed seizure of one of the largest European BlackShades distribution websites, bshades.eu, on Wednesday.
In all, at least 1,000 computers were seized.
Part of a larger Anti-Cyber Crime effort
Last week’s BlackShades crackdown coincides with an FBI announcement via Reuters to increase its global, anti-cyber crime efforts and to take a more offensive approach to arresting criminals. In the weeks to come, it will be interesting to see if the BlackShades raid is just one of many conducted against popular malware kits and tools.
News of BlackShades is also followed by headlines that read that the United States will be charging Chinese Army personnel with cyberspying. Official announcement of the charges will come Monday morning.
Have a Great (Malware-Free) week ahead!
For more on RATs and how to stay protected, see our March warning on WinSpy and GimmeRAT, two prevalent variants that allow for remote monitoring of PCs and Android devices.
Related Posts:
- Rat Warning: WinSpy and GimmeRAT
- U.S. Charges Chinese Military Hackers with Cyber Espionage
- Mysterious DDOS Attack Against Top 50 Website
- Warning: Internet Explorer Zero Day CVE-2014-1776
- The 2014 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report
BlackShades RAT Users – Busted
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