Date: 20 Apr 95 13:12:03 EDT
From: "Mich Kabay [NCSA Sys_Op]" <75300.3232@compuserve.com>
Subject: 11 B-boards dismantled in Montreal
 
Eleven Electronic Bulletin Board Systems Dismantled
(From A Royal Canadian Mounted Police news release)
 
Montreal, April 12, 1995 - Seventeen searches conducted in the Greater
Montreal area by the Copyright Investigations Unit of the Montreal RCMP
Federal Enforcement Section put an end to the operation of eleven
electronic bulletin board systems (BBS).
 
Since 6 o'clock this morning, 75 RCMP members have been dismantling bulletin
boards specialized in circulating copyrighted Canadian software such as Le
Correcteur 101, CorelDraw, Winfax PRO, as well as products developed by
Audodes [Autodesk?], Borland, Clark Development, DataStorm, Disney, IBM,
Lotus, Microsoft, Windows 95, Mustang Software, Novell, Playboy,
Quarterdeck, Sierra, Symantec and many other firms.
 
Computers and peripherals worth more than one hundred thousand dollars were
seized, along with millions of dollars of pirated software.
 
This is the most important operation of this kind yet in Canada against
illicit bulletin board systems.
 
About 15 persons will appear in court at a later date to face charges
under the Copyright Act which sets out severe penalties for offenders:
-       6 months and/or $25,000.00 per count for summary conviction
        offenses;
-       2 years and/or $1,000,000.00 per count for indictable offenses.
 
.... [invitation to press conference 95.04.11]....
 
-  30  -
 
Resource person:
 
Sergeant Serge Corriveau
Federal Enforcement Section
Tel. (514) 939-8307
 
or
 
Constable Gilles Deziel
Community Relations Section
Tel. (514) 939-8308
 
   -----
 
_La Presse_, the largest newspaper in the greater Montreal area, published a
news story about the raids on 13 Apr 1995 (translation and summary by MK):
 
        Major Strike by the RCMP in the InfoBahn
        [Gros coup de la GRC dans l'inforoute]
 
        by Eric Trottier, La Presse
 
        The RCMP has decided to do a little house-cleaning in the
        joyously anarchic world of the electronic highway.
 
        Thanks to a computer-science infiltration operation, the
        federal police yesterday dismantled 11 bulletin boards that
        were trafficking in tens of thousands of software packages
        around the world.
 
        "It's the first time we have been able to implement this type
        of penetration of BBSs.  Even in the U.S., the most important
        dragnet of this type has so far only allowed the dismantling of
        six BBSs at a time," said Sergeant Serge Corriveau to La Presse
        shortly after the investigators completed more than a dozen
        penetrations and seized more than C$200,000 [U$140,000] of
        computer equipment.
 
Key points from the article:
 
o       News of the raid spread rapidly through the Internet;
 
o       The 11 BBSs were involved in large-scale fraud in N.America
        and Europe.  Subscription fees of C$30-C$50 per month allowed
        participants to download copies of proprietary software at will.
 
o       "Everything available legally on the market was offered by these
        BBSs," said Sgt Corriveau.
 
o       Some of the more audacious BBSs offered beta copies of Windows95.
 
o       There are about 700 BBSs in the greater Montreal area; the RCMP
        estimate that three-quarters of them traffic in stolen software.
 
o       Some of the BBS have become virtual flea markets of pornography,
        bomb-making instructions, and details of how to succeed at suicide.
 
o       In one of the shut-down systems, stolen goods and illegal assault
        weapons were advertised for sale.
 
o       It has taken a year to infiltrate the BBSs; some officers had to
        wait up to four months to gain entrance to the inner areas of the
        boards they were investigating.
 
o       The raids involved 75 officers in Montreal, Outremont, Repentigny,
        Longueuil, Saint-Amable, and the St-Jerome area.
 
o       The BBSs shut down are:  Notice, Twins, Red Alert, Perfect Crime,
        Beyond Corruption, Line-Up, Wolf Pack, On the World, Restricted Area
        and Necromancer Mecon.
 
o       Most had about 6 telephone lines for full-time access, serving
        100-250 clients, with some in Europe.  The larges, Notice, had
        350 clients who each paid $50/month, for an untaxed revenue of
        C$210,000 per year.
 
o       The police estimate that 11 to 15 criminal hackers will be
        indicted as a result of the raids.  They each face fines of
        C$25,000 to C$100,000.
 
M.E.Kabay,Ph.D., Mgmt Consultant, LGS Group Inc. (Montreal, QC);
Director of Education, Natl Computer Security Assn (Carlisle, PA)
 
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