Dutch, FBI, Europol team up against global botnet

The Netherlands joined forces with the FBI and Europol's European Cybercrime Center and the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce to take down the Beebone botnet, Europol announced on their website yesterday. The operation was led by the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit. The Beebone botnet, also known as AAEH, is a polymorphic downloader bot that installs various forms of malware on victim's computers. According to Europol, initial figures show that more than 12 thousand computers have been affected. Beebone is not the most widespread botnet, but it is a very sophisticated malware that allows multiple forms of malware to infect victim's computers. In cooperation with Intel Security, Kaspersky and Shadoserver, the operation stopped the botnet by registering, seizing or suspending all domain names with which the malware could communicate and redirecting the traffic. Data will be distributed to Internet Service Providers and Computer Emergency Response Teams worldwide so that they can inform the victims. "This successful operation shows the importance of international law enforcement working together with private industry to fight the global threat of cybercrime." Wil van Gemert, Europol's Deputy Director of Operations, said about the operation. "We will continue our efforts to take down botnets and disrupt the core infrastructures used by cyber-criminals to carry out a variety of crimes. Together with the EU Member States and partners around the globe, our aim is to protect people worldwide against these criminal activities."