Microsoft legal beats up on botnets
Summary
Topics
With court backing and a novel use of a civil procedure, Microsoft appears to be close to obliterating the Waledac spam botnet, changing the way online criminal operations are defeated.
A magistrate judge in federal court in Virginia is expected to recommend within days that the judge hearing Microsoft's case grant a default judgment, Richard Boscovich, a senior Microsoft attorney told CNET on Wednesday.
This would mean that the 276 Web domains deployed as Waledac command-and-control servers to provide instructions to thousands of infected computers would be forfeited to Microsoft, effectively shutting down the botnet for good, he said.
For more on this story, read Microsoft legal punch may change botnet battles forever on CNET News.
Talkback Most Recent of 5 Talkback(s)
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RE: Microsoft legal beats up on botnets
Go Microsoft! Take those botnets down and show them who's boss!
Loverock Davidson9th Sep 2010 -
1 point for the Microsoft legal team
-1 for Microsoft's tech team and -2 for the Waledac team.
The legal team just keeps on showing who's boss in Microsoft's fiefdom.
The legal team is the one that shows results. Congratulations!
OS Reload9th Sep 2010 -
... yet FOSS cannot even handle MSFT '-1' team
Imagine how roundly MSFT would hand back FOSS their butt on a plate when they build their tech team up to +1 level.
LBiege9th Sep 2010 -
And a minus 2 for you
As you just keep showing that you are as ignorant as they come.
And you manage to do that all on your own. Congratulations!
John Zern9th Sep 2010 -
WOW! They finally found a way to stop spam!
A default judgment against a fly-by-night group! I'm sure glad to see that the federal government is on top of things!
I notice that it doesn't say the SERVERS are being forfeited to Microsoft, only the DOMAINS. Considering how EXTREMELY DIFFICULT it is to obtain a DOMAIN NAME nowadays, that court sure showed those guys! I bet they'll think long and hard before trying THAT again!
Rick_R9th Sep 2010
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