Police in the Canadian province of Quebec have arrested 17 people on suspicion of conducting alleged botnet-related activities that have caused an estimated US$44.3m in damages worldwide.

The hackers, who are thought to have controlled as many as one million systems in 100 countries across the globe, used the ‘zombie’ machines to attack websites in order to steal victims’ data.

If convicted of computer hacking charges, the accused face up to 10 years in prison.