CRTC Serves The First Warrant Under CASL

On Dec. 3, 2015, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced that it had served the first warrant under Canada's Anti-spam Law (CASL).

The warrant was intended to bring down a server located in Toronto, Ontario, that had been identified in an international investigation as a command and control server for the distribution of Win32/Dorkbot malware. Dorkbot compromises infected computers to allow the theft of usernames, passwords and other information, creating a risk of identity theft, can cause the computer to participate in distributed denial of service attacks, and can also download additional malware that may further compromise the device. Manon Bombardier, the CRTC's Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer commented that "These are very egregious botnets that are used for illicit activities and can lead to identity theft and fraud."