U.S. Achieves Milestone in Defeating Global Botnet Malware

By seizing servers and domain names and getting permission to remotely turn off malware on compromised PCs, U.S. officials have disabled a botnet that steals data from infected computers. The legal actions are part of the "most complete and comprehensive enforcement action ever taken by U.S. authorities to disable an international botnet," according to a statement from the Department of Justice. A botnet is a group of computers that have been compromised and are being remotely controlled by attackers, typically to send spam or attack other computers.

It's the first time law enforcement in the U.S. has requested permission from a court to take control of a botnet, according to a request for a temporary restraining order that was granted. Similar action was taken by Dutch officials who downloaded "good" software to computers infected with Bredolab botnet malware, the filing said.

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