OMEN
12-07-2007, 07:48 PM
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A YOUNG New Zealand man has been accused of leading a group of cyber criminals who caused more than $20 million worth of damage around the world.
In a joint investigation between New Zealand Police, FBI and Dutch authorities, the home of an 18-year-old known online as AKILL was raided on Wednesday.
According to reports, the FBI has executed 13 search warrants in the US and overseas. So far, it has uncovered more than $22.7 million in economic losses caused by the group of hackers known as the A-Team.
The man, from Hamilton on New Zealand's North Island, has yet to be charged.
Detective Inspector Peter Devoy from New Zealand Police said it did not appear any Australians were involved in the hacking team.
Mr Devoy said the young NZ man had been co-operating with authorities.
"We are still investigating the matter and we are speaking to him. We are progressing the inquiry and we are happy with the way we are going," he said.
The 18-year-old was allegedly the ringleader of the A-Team, which is accused of infecting more than one million computers with malicious software.
"Sitting in New Zealand, AKILL is alleged to have designed a unique virus that utilised encryption and was undetectable by anti-virus software," a statement from New Zealand Police said.
Once infected, the computers became robots that could be used in unison to overload computer networks, in what is known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.
Infected computers can also be used to aid identity theft.
The man, whose name has not been released, was arrested as part of Operation Bot Roast launched by the FBI in June to counter the growing threat from botnets.
Police raided a number of homes in New Zealand as part of the operation although, Mr said, many people targeted appeared to have been unwitting victims of the crime.
Police allege the hackers caused a DDoS attack at a Philadelphia university in February 2006 in which computer access was denied to about 4000 university students and staff.
A statement from New Zealand Police said Dutch authorities had determined AKILL was part of an adware scheme that infected 1.3 million computers.
Adware is software that may collect information about a computer user's browsing habits and send it back to a third party, or cause advertisements to appear on computers.
AAP
A YOUNG New Zealand man has been accused of leading a group of cyber criminals who caused more than $20 million worth of damage around the world.
In a joint investigation between New Zealand Police, FBI and Dutch authorities, the home of an 18-year-old known online as AKILL was raided on Wednesday.
According to reports, the FBI has executed 13 search warrants in the US and overseas. So far, it has uncovered more than $22.7 million in economic losses caused by the group of hackers known as the A-Team.
The man, from Hamilton on New Zealand's North Island, has yet to be charged.
Detective Inspector Peter Devoy from New Zealand Police said it did not appear any Australians were involved in the hacking team.
Mr Devoy said the young NZ man had been co-operating with authorities.
"We are still investigating the matter and we are speaking to him. We are progressing the inquiry and we are happy with the way we are going," he said.
The 18-year-old was allegedly the ringleader of the A-Team, which is accused of infecting more than one million computers with malicious software.
"Sitting in New Zealand, AKILL is alleged to have designed a unique virus that utilised encryption and was undetectable by anti-virus software," a statement from New Zealand Police said.
Once infected, the computers became robots that could be used in unison to overload computer networks, in what is known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.
Infected computers can also be used to aid identity theft.
The man, whose name has not been released, was arrested as part of Operation Bot Roast launched by the FBI in June to counter the growing threat from botnets.
Police raided a number of homes in New Zealand as part of the operation although, Mr said, many people targeted appeared to have been unwitting victims of the crime.
Police allege the hackers caused a DDoS attack at a Philadelphia university in February 2006 in which computer access was denied to about 4000 university students and staff.
A statement from New Zealand Police said Dutch authorities had determined AKILL was part of an adware scheme that infected 1.3 million computers.
Adware is software that may collect information about a computer user's browsing habits and send it back to a third party, or cause advertisements to appear on computers.
AAP