Enlarge / Avalanche once hosted ransomware that spoofed messages from law enforcement. Now, a team of 40 law enforcement agencies has shut it down. (credit: Symantec)
[Update, 3:00 PM EDT: This story has been updated with additional details from The Shadowserver Foundation and Europol.]
A botnet that has served up phishing attacks and at least 17 different malware families to victims for much of this decade has been taken down in a coordinated effort by an international group of law enforcement agencies and security firms. Law enforcement officials seized command and control servers and took control of more than 800,000 Internet domains used by the botnet, dubbed "Avalanche," which has been in operation in some form since at least late 2009.
"The operation involves arrests and searches in five countries," representatives of the FBI and US Department of Justice said in a joint statement issued today. "More than 50 Avalanche servers worldwide were taken offline."