14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is no longer leading the hunt for the cybercriminals behind the Rustock botnet, but they should by no means breathe easily, since a new, more formidable adversary is now chasing them down. Richard Domingues Boscovich, Senior Attorney, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit announced that as the Redmond company won the civil case against the Rustock botnet operators, all evidence gathered will be handed over to the FBI for its criminal investigation.
“on Sept. 13th, Judge James L. Robart, of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled that the domain names and Internet protocol addresses used to host the botnet would be effectively removed from the defendants’ control,” Boscovich explained.
“This case not only enabled the take down of a botnet known to be one of the single largest sources of spam on the Internet, but it is now helping to ensure that this botnet will never be used for cybercrime again. However, we’re not stopping here.”
Half a year has passed since the software giant (Microsoft Malware Protection Center and Trustworthy Computing) together with a number of partners tackled the Rustock botnet head on and shut it down.
Of course, merely killing Rustock would not be enough by any measure, not as long as the people responsible for the botnet are brought to justice. Of course, there’s only so much that Microsoft can do, and this is where the FBI steps in.
“We are also turning over all of the evidence we collected during discovery and our investigation to the FBI, to help ensure those responsible for operating the Rustock botnet are held accountable for their actions,” Boscovich added.
Rustock was at one point the largest source of spam worldwide, with over one million infected PCs (zombie computers) under the control of the botnet’s operators.
Compared to when it was in its prime, Rustock has seen a decrease in size by an average of 75% worldwide, but as much as 85.47% in India and 82.76% in Russia.
People with any information that can be used to identify the cybercriminals behind Rustock can still get a healthy reward from Microsoft if they share details that can lead to their apprehension with the FBI.
“It is important to note that Microsoft ‘s $250,000 reward offer for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of Rustock’s operators remains in effect, but now any tips should be sent directly to the FBI at MS_Referrals at ic.fbi.gov,” Boscovich said.