On Wednesday night, Microsoft announced that in coordination with the FBI, it had moved in to disrupt the massive botnet-based crime ring known as Citadel.
Richard Boscovich, assistant general counsel in the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, told eSecurity Planet that there were more than 1,400 botnets associated with this malware. As such, it took Microsoft and its partners a significant amount of time to locate all of the Citadel botnets operating around the world.
“This was a lengthy process and we relied heavily on our financial services and technology industry partners to ensure that we would be able to take aggressive action against this threat,” Boscovich said.
The Citadel malware infected PCs with a keylogger that monitored user activity on financial websites. The malware infected more than five million people across 90 countries and stole more than $500 million in assets.
Read the full story at eSecurity Planet:
Microsoft, Feds Take Down Citadel Botnets
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.