Reuters: Law enforcement agencies in Europe and the United States have disabled a network (botnet) that included at least 12.000 infected computers. These computers were managed by criminals, according to statements made today Thursday by Europol.
The software used by criminals to infect computers was "very sophisticated" but the network was relatively small compared to others uncovered in the past, Europol said.
Those behind the network or "botnet"They infected the computers with the software and then sold to third parties the right to install further malware," said Paul Gillen, chief business officer at Europol's Cybercrime Center.
Most of the victims were in the United States, Japan, India and Taiwan, Gillen said.
It is impossible to estimate the cost of the damage, he said, adding that no arrests have been made.
"This is going to take some time," Gillen said. "We just turned off the botnet last night."
At business the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Europol the British and Dutch cyber crime police, in collaboration with the private companies, Intel, Kaspersky and Shadowserver.
