Microsoft, Symantec Hijack ‘Bamital’ Botnet
Summary: Microsoft and Symantec said they teamed up to seize control of the Bamital botnet, a search-hijacking and click-fraud operation that their research shows attacked more than eight million computers over two years. Working with U.S. federal marshals, technicians raided data centers at Leaseweb USA in Manassas, Virginia, and ISPrime in Weehawken, New Jersey, after Microsoft obtained a court order from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and are now using the botnet's control channels to notify infected users.
Bottom line: Microsoft's own research indicates 22 percent of all ad-clicks are fraudulent, and the operators behind Bamital were believed to earn at least $1 million a year in profits - a reminder that click fraud is a funded criminal business, not background noise.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
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