Police hijack a botnet and remotely kill 850, 000 malware infections

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/01/police-botnet-takedown-infections/

By Zach Whittaker
Tech Crunch
September 1, 2019

In a rare feat, French police have hijacked and neutralized a massive 
cryptocurrency mining botnet controlling close to a million infected 
computers.

The notorious Retadup malware infects computers and starts mining 
cryptocurrency by sapping power from a computer’s processor. Although the 
malware was used to generate money, the malware operators easily could 
have run other malicious code, like spyware or ransomware. The malware 
also has wormable properties, allowing it to spread from computer to 
computer.

Since its first appearance, the cryptocurrency mining malware has spread 
across the world, including the U.S., Russia, and Central and South 
America.

According to a blog post announcing the bust, security firm Avast 
confirmed the operation was successful.

[...]

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