Information Security Firm Hails Successful Law Enforcement Actions In Cyberspace

Online, July 23, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Two weeks ago, three eastern Europeans forming a gang of cyber-criminals began prison sentences imposed by a UK court, after being found guilty of obtaining users' financial login details by means of the "SpyEye" virus, and then extracting funds from the users' accounts. Police in Estonia had alerted British authorities to the cyber-crimes, which targeted UK residents and banks.

In a separate case, July 9th saw the final phase in the "DNS Changer" virus saga. The cyber-gang behind this virus was arrested by the FBI in November 2011 and their rogue DNS server computers were captured. The authorities kept the servers functioning for the benefit of remaining virus victims, but on July 9th they were finally switched off, thus terminating the process.

Briony Williams, a security consultant at information security firm commissum, commented: "It is always encouraging to hear news of successful law enforcement in cyberspace, and especially in cases like this, which involve co-operation between agencies in more than one country. Since the Internet is not restricted by national boundaries, it is essential for law enforcement likewise to be able to co-operate across these boundaries."

The "SpyEye" network was broken by the UK Metropolitan Police's Central E-Crime Unit (PCeU), which gained control over one of the gang's servers that was located in the UK, which in turn enabled them to locate and capture other servers in the network. This made it possible for them to identify the two ringleaders, and arrests followed. The accomplice was arrested in Denmark (for a separate offence) and was extradited to the UK in 2011.

Briony Williams of commissum additionally commented: "This outcome represents significant progress in the ability of UK law enforcement to detect and prosecute cyber-crime. Huge strides have been made over the past few years in setting up specialist units, such as the PCeU, and developing the necessary skills. Although much remains to be done, and although there will always be an 'arms race' in cyberspace, it is clear that law enforcement agencies in the developed countries are now far more geared up to counter the threat than they were even a few years ago."