Europol brings down massive botnet

The Netherlands was one of four European Union countries to take part in a joint international operation led by Europol's European Cybercrime Center (EC3) investigated the Rammit botnet responsible for infecting 3.2 million computers worldwide, says Europol. Representatives from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, Microsoft, Symantec and AnubisNetworks joined forces with Europol officials to redirect 300 Internet domains being used by the operators of the botnet. Botnet is used to describe a network of infected computers. The one in question was used by criminals to gain remote access to and infiltrate the affected computers. The infiltrators were then able to disable antivirus protection and obtain personal and financial information including banking passwords. "This successful operation shows the importance of international law enforcement working together with private industry in the fight against the global threat of cybercrime," said Europol Deputy Director of Operations, Wil van Gemert. "We will continue our efforts in taking down botnets and disrupting the core infrastructures used by criminals to conduct a variety of cybercrimes. Together with the EU Member States and partners around the globe, our aim is to protect people around the world against these criminal activities." The malware infected Microsoft user systems. Microsoft and Symantec have since released a system to clean and restore infected computer systems. Additional information is available at www.getsafeonline.org and www.cyberstreetwise.com.