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May 04, 2011

Federal Government Eliminates Coreflood Botnet

Coreflood is a large-scale, widespread botnet responsible for infecting millions of computers since its conception. The U.S. Justice Department worked in conjunction with the FBI to track and take down the cyber criminals who created and distributed this malicious piece of software.

How the Operation Worked

The operation consisted of five command servers for computers controlled remotely as well as 29 domain names. All of these assets were seized by the FBI. The Department of Justice also identified 13 perpetrators in the investigation, all of which were not United States citizens. The Assistant Attorney General announced that this shut-down was one segment of a comprehensive effort by the Department of Justice to eliminate an international botnet.

Millions of Dollars of Compromised Information

At the same time, this shutdown allows customers to take the required steps to protect themselves from this destructive malware. Computer security company, McAfee, representatives noted that although it is difficult to place an exact estimate of the cost lost by victims, cyber criminals are said to have made off with hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of sensitive information like finances and passwords, all of which could help hackers transfer money to personal accounts.

Ten Years Uninterrupted

Investigators estimate that the Coreflood botnet has operated for more than ten years without catching the cyber criminals responsible. Over those ten years, the malware is said to have infected approximately two million computers across the globe. This particular botnet had functioned by recording the infected terminal’s keystrokes from the keyboard. This is an extremely simple but powerful and destructive piece of software.

The Federal Government Reaching out the Victims

The federal government is also attempting to notify as many victims of these cybercrimes as possible. This is a strong effort to potentially stop or limit future instances of theft and fraud. Although this may deter a limited number of cyber criminals, there will always be individuals searching for easy, vulnerable targets.

This bust is a major step toward making the Internet a much safer place. Unfortunately, when one virus is eliminated, ten more pop up across the Internet and on users computers across the globe. These arrests could also lead the Department of Justice and FBI to the masterminds behind the international version. Hopefully this simple program will be eliminated forever and easily detectable in the future as a result of this seizure.

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