Earlier in the month Microsoft took action to thwart the efforts of the Sirefef botnet also known ZeroAccess. It seems as though the disruption caused by Microsoft working in conjunction with the FBI and Eurpol has borne fruit, the criminal who had been using the botnet to hijack search results appear to have just given up.
Richard Domingues Boscovich, Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit explains that the aim of the initial action was not necessarily to wipe out the botnet, but to raise awareness and clean up computer that had become infected.
Whilst it was monitoring the impact of its ZeroAccess take-down of this month, working alongside law enforcement bodies to track new IP addresses introduced by the crooks, Microsoft noticed an interesting section of update code that read “WHITE FLAG”
"The criminals have decided to surrender control of the botnet. Since that time, we have not seen any additional attempts by the bot-herders to release new code and as a result, the botnet is currently no longer being used to commit fraud," said Richard Domingues Boscovich.
“The botnet is currently no longer being used to commit fraud,” said Richard Domingues Boscovich.
Microsoft worked closely with the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and other EU-based law enforcement agencies to take on ZeroAccess, which was believed to have infected two million machines globally.
Microsoft report that our disruption effort has been successful, and it appears that the criminals have abandoned their botnet.
Microsoft tries to help infected users clean their computers, as ZeroAccess is a sophisticated and difficult to remove piece of malware. Provided the Steps Click on
Richard Domingues Boscovich, Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit explains that the aim of the initial action was not necessarily to wipe out the botnet, but to raise awareness and clean up computer that had become infected.
Whilst it was monitoring the impact of its ZeroAccess take-down of this month, working alongside law enforcement bodies to track new IP addresses introduced by the crooks, Microsoft noticed an interesting section of update code that read “WHITE FLAG”
"The criminals have decided to surrender control of the botnet. Since that time, we have not seen any additional attempts by the bot-herders to release new code and as a result, the botnet is currently no longer being used to commit fraud," said Richard Domingues Boscovich.
“The botnet is currently no longer being used to commit fraud,” said Richard Domingues Boscovich.
Microsoft worked closely with the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and other EU-based law enforcement agencies to take on ZeroAccess, which was believed to have infected two million machines globally.
Microsoft report that our disruption effort has been successful, and it appears that the criminals have abandoned their botnet.
Microsoft tries to help infected users clean their computers, as ZeroAccess is a sophisticated and difficult to remove piece of malware. Provided the Steps Click on
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