Montreal Police investigating Ubisoft hostage hoax
Posted November 14, 2020 6:36 pm.
Last Updated November 14, 2020 6:37 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
MONTREAL (CityNews) – If cyber crime and false hostage threats are happening often, how can police detect a hoax faster?
The question is being raised after the Montreal police received a 911 call about a possible hostage situation Friday at the headquarters of video game company Ubisoft.
A six hour police operation ensued. The incident was later called a false alarm.
“We’ve seen this happen numerous times. And we’ve seen this happen around the world,” said Ritesh Kotak, tech & amp; cyber security analyst.
“When it comes to these types of crimes and technology, you don’t need to physically be in Montreal. You could be virtually anywhere in the world and make it look like you’re in Montreal committing these crimes tying up very valuable resources.”
Friday afternoon in Montreal’s mile-end SPVM officers, an armoured swat truck along with a police bus were dispatched to the Ubisoft headquarters.
WATCH MORE: False alarm leads to massive police operation at Ubisoft
According to Kotak, these employees are the latest victims of an internet-age crime called “swatting.”
“What a swatter does essentially is trick the 911 operator into thinking that there is a major incident going on and they must send officers to that location immediately cause life hangs in the balance.”
Ubisoft took to social media following the incident to thank the SPVM.
— Ubisoft Montréal (@UbisoftMTL) November 14, 2020
An investigation is underway as it is still unclear who is behind this important police force deployment.
“These things aren’t done overnight. This is not you push a button and you get answers,” explained Katok. “These cyber criminals are smart. They use multiple proxy servers anonymysers essentially their able to hide their computer bouncing their address around the world.”
