The “Qakbot” botnet, a community of contaminated computer systems utilized by hackers to assault governments and companies around the globe, has been dismantled and destroyed. So claims United States Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christopher Wray, who delivered the information by way of a brief video announcement connected to a press launch. According to the FBI, a brand new approach redirected the botnet’s visitors to Bureau-controlled programs, which have been then in a position to remotely uninstall it from lots of of 1000’s of contaminated computer systems.

Bleeping Computer goes into extra element on the precise mechanism used. This specific botnet has been utilized in 40 or extra ransomware assaults, notably focusing on authorities infrastructure and healthcare suppliers, shaking down victims by locking important programs and stealing private information then extorting fee by way of hard-to-trace cryptocurrency. The system has been working since not less than 2008, and has been used along side mass “lures” and social engineering strategies to determine infections on Windows units. Once delivered, the Qakbot an infection (AKA Qbot or Pinkslipbot) can steal emails and different private information whereas harnessing the machine to proliferate itself to much more victims.

According to the report, the FBI and its home and worldwide legislation enforcement companions seized a important piece of the botnet’s server infrastructure. Once secured, the Bureau created new encryption programs to lock the botnet’s instructions from its authentic house owners and whomever they’d been sharing it with, then created an uninstallation device. The FBI used the Qakbot community itself to distribute the device, which executed itself on contaminated machines and successfully dismantled the botnet with the identical mechanism that created it within the first place.

Oh, and the marketing campaign that took down Qakbot was known as “Operation Duck Hunt.” Nice.

It’s a uncommon and dramatic win in opposition to malware makers, stopping a system that’s stolen lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} and numerous digital identities. For a extra complete breakdown on the operation, read Bleeping Computer’s report.