Denial of service attacks use "zombie" computers

A number of houses were searched in the Elgin area of north east Scotland on Friday and computers seized.

Officers were investigating attacks in which compromised computers - known as zombies - are used to flood websites with useless traffic.

A 27-year-old from Elgin is due to appear in court in the town on Monday.

The searches were carried out by officers from the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency's (SDEA) National Hi-Tech Crime Unit.

Operation Casper... is an excellent example of how law enforcement agencies, working together, can impact on internet-related crime DCS Stephen Ward SDEA

They were part of Operation Casper, a joint investigation which has concentrated on what are known as "denial of service attacks".

A spokesman for the SDEA said these typically used hundreds of "compromised" computers to launch attacks.

"Over the past year we have seen a considerable rise in this type of attack, some of which also form the basis for extortion attacks," the SDEA said.

Its crime co-ordinator, Detective Chief Superintendent Stephen Ward, said: "Operation Casper has involved the SDEA working closely with the US Secret Service and is an excellent example of how law enforcement agencies, working together, can impact on internet-related crime.

"Business groups, organisations and individuals can all be subject of internet criminality and I would like to reiterate this agency's commitment to police this criminal behaviour in all its guises.