Microsoft strikes back at Necurs botnet by preemptively disabling hacking tools
Microsoft is trying to sink a vast network that cybercriminals have used for eight years to spread spam and hack computers throughout the globe. Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it has moved to disrupt the Necurs botnet, a network of more than 9 million computers that had been surreptitiously infected with malware and then used by hackers to carry out various schemes. Attackers, likely in Russia, according to Microsoft, used Necurs to distribute pharmaceutical spam, facilitate ransomware attacks and infect victims with numerous types of malicious software, such as the GameOver Zeus malware that is blamed for $100 million in losses. “The Necurs is one of the largest networks in the spam email threat ecosystem, with victims in nearly every country in the world,” Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for customer security and trust, said in a statement. “During a 58-day period in our investigation, for example, we observed that […]
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