US authorities have shut down a massive network of compromised PCs used by cyber criminals who used the ring to control over two million PCs globally, and stole an estimated $100m.
The Justice Department and FBI said in a joint statement it disabled a "massive fraud scheme" run by the "Coreflood" botnet which has been in operation for nearly a decade.The FBI said it was the most "comprehensive enforcement action ever taken by US authorities to disable an international botnet."
The malicious software, dubbed Coreflood, had created a botnet after infecting over two million PCs worldwide. The ring collected sensitive information such as banking details and stole funds via fraudulent banking and transactions.
The FBI seized hard drives used to run the botnet ring after a federal court allowed it to take action. It targeted 29 internet domains and five computer servers which controlled the botnet. It then intercepted the requests from infected computers, and asked them to shut down.
More than 1.8 million infected computers were in the US, but the department believes that the criminal gang behind the botnet was from another country.
The action was taken with Microsoft’s help.
Microsoft lawayer Richard Boscovich said the unit was "was happy to provide technical information from the lessons we learned from the recent Rustock and Waledac botnet takedowns to assist these agencies."
