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Microsoft has won court approval to deactivate 277 domain names that are being used to control a vast network of infected PCs.
The software giant claims the notorious Waledac botnet is being used by Eastern European spammers to send 1.5 billion spam messages every day, and infect hundreds of thousands of machines with malware.
Communications within the notorious Waledac botnet have been "effectively decimated," thanks to a novel takedown approach that combined court actions with a variety of technical measures, a Microsoft program manager said Tuesday.
A federal magistrate judge has recommended that Microsoft be given ownership of 276 internet addresses used to control “Waledac,” a massive botnet that the software company has been working to bring down.
The recommendation by Magistrate Judge John F. Anderson of the US District Court for Eastern Virginia is a victory in Microsoft's experimental campaign to wrest control of one of the net's biggest menaces. The effort, which commenced in February, has combined technical and legal maneuvers in an attempt to disrupt Waledac, which was once one of the 10 biggest botnets and a major distributor of spam.
