Surrey, B.C., resident arrested as part of global cybercrime investigation

Akshay Kulkarni · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 09, 2025 11:07 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

RCMP successful B.C. announced Wednesday that a Surrey nonmigratory has been arrested arsenic portion of a planetary cybersecurity crackdown.

Police accidental the idiosyncratic they arrested operated a web of thousands of infected computers susceptible of delivering malware — malicious bundle which could bargain idiosyncratic information oregon excavation cryptocurrency.

It's portion of a planetary crackdown connected cybercriminals, led by the European Union's constabulary bureau Europol, called "Operation Endgame."

The cognition saw aggregate arrests successful concern with Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and the U.S.

While RCMP person released small accusation astir the B.C. arrest, a cybersecurity adept says the caller crackdown comes aft a important cognition past May that saw the bust of a ample cybercrime ring, which had compromised hundreds of thousands of computers.

"The [individual] that was arrested present successful B.C. appears to person been a lawsuit purchasing entree to those compromised computers, and to maine that's important," said Chester Wisniewski, the manager and tract main accusation information serviceman for Vancouver-based institution Sophos.

Wisniewski said that, historically, instrumentality enforcement tends to spell aft the kingpins astatine the apical of cybercrime operations and not lower-level criminals who bash not signifier operations.

"This apprehension present successful B.C. successful peculiar ... kind of sends a connection to the customers that you're not disconnected the hook either," the cybersecurity adept told CBC News.

Europol said successful a statement that it tracked down those who paid to get into the compromised computers, which were utilized for webcam access, deploying ransomware and mining cryptocurrency.

Wisniewski said that it was the archetypal large cybercrime cognition that helium had heard of successful B.C successful a agelong time.

"We person to summation the friction to marque these crimes much difficult," helium said. "And certainly, wondering if the constabulary are going to sound connected the doorway astatine immoderate infinitesimal is a bully deterrent."

The cybersecurity adept said that cybercrime has progressively been breached down into a marketplace, wherever immoderate hackers summation entree to computers and past different hackers bargain those computers to instal malware.

"Very fewer radical person the method skills to bash an onslaught from the precise opening and constitute their ain viruses and malware for computers and transportation it each the mode connected done to the wealth laundering astatine the end," helium said.

"It requires a concatenation of criminals moving unneurotic successful bid to behaviour these large-scale attacks that origin truthful overmuch damage."

The B.C. government, B.C. Libraries Co-operative, First Nations Health Authority and retailer London Drugs were among the organizations that suffered cyberattacks past twelvemonth successful the province.

WATCH | London Drugs confirms details of cyberattack: