The FBI and European law enforcement agencies dismantled a massive network of hacked computers that had been used to defraud victims of hundreds of millions of dollars, agencies announced Tuesday.
Ummm … this is a bit disconcerting. I mean good the gov’t did something, but W O W on their ability to uninstall a program from privately-owned computers.
“The investigation culminated late last week, when the FBI redirected the botnet’s internet traffic through computer servers controlled by the bureau and then issued commands to some infected computers to uninstall the malicious software.”
Right. Undercover FBI was all like “hey hackers, press alt-f4 to check for hidden agents” and they did and then all the zombie PCs shut down and the FBI all cheered
Ummm … this is a bit disconcerting. I mean good the gov’t did something, but W O W on their ability to uninstall a program from privately-owned computers.
“The investigation culminated late last week, when the FBI redirected the botnet’s internet traffic through computer servers controlled by the bureau and then issued commands to some infected computers to uninstall the malicious software.”
Sounds to me like they hacked the bot net rather than used some universal backdoor into privately owned computers.
This is correct. Someone doesn’t know what a C2 is.
Command & Control for those that don’t. It’s the mechanism used to control the hacked computers. Back in my day they often used IRC.
They got Ritalin up in here???
Subzero is where it’s at!
That’s not how any of this works
Right. Undercover FBI was all like “hey hackers, press alt-f4 to check for hidden agents” and they did and then all the zombie PCs shut down and the FBI all cheered
The FBI has removed malware from personal devices before and will likely continue to unless forbidden to via legislation.
https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/548082-doj-authorizes-fbi-to-remove-malware-on-computers/
Removed by mod
Ur quite dumb
Oh boy can’t wait for this to be used maliciously, assuming it hasn’t already.
The botnet was the example of “this” being used maliciously, the government stopped it.
Meant by the government.
This is minor compared to the extant cyberattack capacity of the US government. It’s a drop in the bucket. No, a fraction of a drop in the bucket.
This article is literally about it being used maliciously
I think they meant the FBI taking it over and not shutting it down.
They took it over to shut it down.
Which I’m fine with, if they had a warrant or court order or something. A real one, not a FISA court. But generally I don’t think they should do that.
I mean… you assume they shut it down. They said they did. 50/50 odds they didn’t give it over to the NSA or CIA or something.
You got a malicious bot net?