The Microsoft
Digital Crimes Unit today announced it has successfully disrupted a rampant botnet in collaboration with Europol’s
European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and leaders in the technology industry, including
A10 Networks Inc. The Sirefef botnet, also known as ZeroAccess, is responsible for infecting more than 2 million computers, specifically targeting search results on Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines, and is estimated to cost online advertisers $2.7 million each month. Today’s action is expected to significantly disrupt the botnet’s operation, increasing the cost and risk for cybercriminals to continue doing business and preventing victims’ computers from committing fraudulent schemes.