A coalition of technology companies used a federal court order unsealed Monday to begin dismantling one of the world’s most dangerous botnets in an effort to preempt disruptive cyber-attacks before next month’s U.S. presidential election.
The takedown is a highly coordinated event, spearheaded by the software giant Microsoft Corp. and involving telecommunications providers in multiple countries. If the operation succeeds, it will disable a global network of infected computers created by a popular malicious software known as Trickbot.
Beginning early Monday, Trickbot operators are expected to began losing communication with the millions of computers they had painstakingly infected over a period of months, even years. The loss of the botnet — as a network of infected computers is known — will make it more difficult for Russian-based cybercriminals and other digital marauders to do their work. It will likely take months or years for the criminals to recover, if at all.
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