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Scottish Malware Distributor Confesses Crimes

Matthew Anderson, a 33 year old Scottish man from Drummuir, Aberdeenshire (Scotland) pleaded guilty on October 23, 2010 to crimes resulting from his activities as the leader of an international cybercriminal group.

Anderson was first detained by the UK authorities in June 2006, after an investigation into a hacking gang called "m00p." Apart from him, his other partners were also detained by the police.

Details of the Anderson's case highlights that investigators found lots of spam messages with malicious attachments that were designed by him. Later on, he circulated those spam messages.

These computer viruses facilitated Anderson to gain control over private, confidential, and financial data stored on the compromised systems. Further, he also had the power to activate webcams and monitor users' activities at their homes. At times, he also took screengrabs.

Besides, the hacker made replicas of various private documents like, medical reports, wills, resumes, private images, and password lists.

Anderson was the one operating behind Optom Security, which provided online security software. He used the profile names of "warpigs" and "aobuluz" to carry his malicious activities.

Commenting on the issue, DC Bob Burls, from Scotland Yard's MPS Police Central e-Crime Unit, stated that, this well planned online criminal network infected billions of systems across the globe, particularly targeting businesses and individuals of the UK, as reported by The Register on October 25, 2010.

Burls further added that, Matthew Anderson systematically exploited netizens not just for his personal monetary benefits but also for infringing users' privacy. They used complicated computer codes to commit crimes.

Burls stated that, the cybercriminals had augmented opportunities to commit crime globally. However, Burls further reassured the public that the international law enforcement and anti-virus companies' defense is not far behind and increasingly becoming more sophisticated, as reported by itpro on October 25, 2010.

Commenting on the same issue, Mikko Hyppönen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure stated that everybody at F-Secure is happy on the closure of this prolonged case for which they had been working for so many years, as reported by Thenewnewinternet on October 25, 2010.

Finally, the Police achieved a lot this year (2010) in taking down cybercrooks, one of which broken out an operation suspected of utilizing the Zeus Trojan for multi-million pound bank account theft.

Related article: Saskatchewan Taxpayers Alerted of ‘Refund’ E-mail Fraud

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