Spain Cracks Down on Cyber Network Criminals

For week 3, I decided to write about cyber crime as a current transnational crime occurring around the world. I will focus on how Spain officials cracked down on the Russian criminals. 

I gathered my information from an article found on the New York Times website in addition to a posting on Europol's website. Both sources reported on an event that happened in February of this year. The article from the New York Times was titled " Cybercrime Network Based in Spain is Broken Up." This article was written by Raphael Minder. 

Minder explains how Russian cybercriminals were successful in persuading vast numbers of Europeans  from over 30 countries to fall victim to their trickery. They fooled so many people by using a computer software program called Ransomware that allowed criminals to send fake police messages to civilians. These police messages would inform the victim that they had been caught doing some form of illegal downloading online. This message would also lock the victim’s computer until they paid 100 Euros (136$). Even though not all were fooled by this message and some were able to find ways to unlock their computer with out paying, the Russian criminals made an estimated 1.3 million dollars from the 3% they successfully convinced. 

Spain was able to dismantle these criminals by arresting the head of the pursuit, in December, along with 10 other people in February. "The Spanish police arrested six Russians, two Ukrainians and two Georgians along the Costa del Sol, a popular vacation destination in southern Spain, where the criminals are believed to have had their main base of operations." The Spanish police confiscated 200 credit cards, computers and 26,000 Euros from the Russian criminals on the day they were captured. In addition, the Spanish Ministry set up a website to help victims disable the virus. 

This transnational crime fits Professor Burch’s description from the PowerPoint. The Russian criminals were not trying to draw attention to themselves, had economic goals and felt no need to articulate any kind of political goals. They also threatened human and individual security more than national security, and used corruption over violence.

If you would like to read more on Spain’s success in finding the Russian criminals, the Europol article can be found at: “Police DismantleProlific Ransomware Cybercriminal Network”