Microsoft has busted the ZLoader criminal botnet. Technical and legal measures have been taken to prevent the use of this malware as a service. The tech giant even went so far as to reveal the name of one of the criminals who helped develop ZLoader. It’s about Denis Malikov from Simferopol, Crimea. The company hopes this will send a signal to others that they cannot be stored digitally.
Locations of acquired fields.
Also, thanks to a court order, Microsoft seized over 65 domains used for the botnet. According to Microsoft, these are being redirected to a sinkhole where they can no longer be used by botnet operators. In addition, control over 319 domains created by the domain creation algorithm in the malware was taken. Work is underway to prevent future registration of domain names. Despite these steps, the tech giant expects the criminals behind the botnet to try to get it working again.
Amy Hogan-Burney, director of Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU), said the main purpose of ZLoader was to steal financial and personal data. It is now also used to replicate ransomware that attacks healthcare organizations, among other things. DCU thanks companies and organizations for their support, including ESET, Black Lotus Labs, Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, Avast, Microsoft Defender, and Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center.
Source: Neowin
Source: Hardware Info
