17 UK arrests linked to malware which captured nude pictures of Miss Teen USA

The 'sextortion' case made headlines in the US when it was revealed that the perpetrator, 20-year-old Jared James Abrahams, threatened to post the photos online unless Wolf gave him a nude video. Abrahams was later sentenced to 18 months in prison.

During a two-day operation this week, international police forces conducted 359 house searches. Europol puts the number of arrests at 'more than 80', but the European Union's Eurojust said in a statement that 97 people had been taken into custody.

It is believed that 17 arrests have been made in the UK, including: a man in Derbyshire; a man in Birmingham; a man in Halesowen; a man in Wolverhampton; a man in Newcastle-under-Lyme; a man in Brixham; a man in Andover in Hampshire; a man in Ashford in Kent; two men in Liverpool; one man in Manchester; one man in Warrington; one man in Woodford Green in Essex; one man in St Andrews; one man in Glasgow; one man in London and one man in Leeds.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) also said in a statement that it is aware of more people in the UK who bought the software but are yet to use it. It is working to warn them that 'they are now known to the agency' and that 'any movement into criminality will result in further action'.

Over 1,100 data storage devices suspected of being used in illegal activities were seized, claims Europol, including computers, laptops, mobile telephones, routers, external hard drives and USB memory sticks.

Substantial quantities of cash, illegal firearms and drugs were also seized.

A recent case of Blackshade use in the Netherlands involved an 18-year-old man who infected 2,000 computers and used it to take pictures of women and girls, said Europol.

People are typically infected by clicking on malicious links on social networking sites, which installs the malware. In many cases those affected will have no idea that anything is wrong.

^{Blackshades RAT can encrypt files and send a message demanding a ransom for their release (picture: blog.malwarebytes.org)}

Investigators from the National Crime Agency believe that around 200,000 usernames and passwords for various online services may have been extracted by Blackshades RAT users in the UK.

Andy Archibald, deputy director of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, said: 'Criminals throughout the UK and across the world are finding out that committing crimes remotely offers no protection from arrest. The unique scale of this cyber operation shows what can happen when law enforcement agencies at local, national and international level work together to tackle the perpetrators and help keep people safe.

'Cyber crime is one of the most significant criminal threats to the UK. The NCA is helping to build the capacity of its partners across the country and coordinating the UK's collective efforts as part of the response. The commitment of our police partners in the cyber arena has been clearly demonstrated by the work culminating in this week's dramatic activity.'

Several users of the Hack Forums website, which claims to be 'your entry into the dark world of hacking', have reported being raided by police in recent days.

Other countries involved in the operation against the creators, sellers and users of the malware included the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Finland, Austria, Estonia, Denmark, USA, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Italy, Moldova and Switzerland.

Meetings attended by police from all involved countries were held in Europe prior to the arrests to coordinate efforts.

Mr Troels Oerting, head of the European Cybercrime Centre at Europol, said: 'This case is yet another example of the critical need for coordinated law enforcement operations against the growing number of cyber criminals operating on an EU and global level. EC3 will continue - together with Eurojust and other partners - to work tirelessly to support our partners in the fight against fraudsters and other cyber criminals who take advantage of the internet to commit crime.

'The work is far from over, but our cooperation to work together across borders has increased and we are dealing with cases on an ongoing basis.'

Troy Gill, senior security analyst at AppRiver, said: 'Blackshades has been circulating for years now. It is a remote access Trojan that gives the attacker a great deal of control over the victim's machine.

'In addition, Blackshades behaves like a 'worm' in that it contains self-propagation mechanisms to facilitate its spreading to other machines.

'Its low price certainly makes it an attractive option for low level cybercriminals or any cybercriminal that simply wants one extra weapon in their arsenal.'