London: Microsoft and law
enforcement agencies have reportedly disrupted one of the world's largest
botnets, ZeroAccess that triggered
online fraud.
The botnet is a network of computers infected
with malware that hijacks web search results and redirects users to potentially
dangerous sites to steal their details.
According to the BBC, the botnet, also generates
fraudulent ad clicks on infected computers then claims payouts from duped
advertisers and has infected about two million computers.
Also called Sirefef botnet, Zero Access targets
search results on Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines and is estimated to
cost online advertisers 2.7million dollars
per month.
Microsoft said that it had been authorized by US
regulators to block incoming and outgoing communications between computers
located in the US and the 18 identified Internet
Protocol (IP) addresses being used to commit the fraudulent schemes.
Executive director of Microsoft Digital Crimes
Unit, David Finn said that the disruption will stop victims' computers from
being used for fraud and help in identifying the computers that need to be
cleaned of the infection.
Microsoft said that due to its botnet
architecture, Zero Access is one of the most robust and durable botnets in
operation today and was built to be resilient to disruption efforts, but the
latest action is expected to significantly disrupt the botnet's operation, the
report added.
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