Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have launched a major search for cybercrime rings believed to have targeted banks and stolen more than US$500 million from accounts.
According to Reuters the unit on Wednesday brought down 1,000 of an estimated 1,400 malicious computer networks known as Citadel.
Microsoft says an estimated five million PCs around the world have been infected by the networks, which cybercriminals have used to penetrate and steal from multiple banks and financial institutions including JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Canada, American Express, Bank of America, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, eBay’s PayPal, HSBC, and Wells Fargo.
Digital Crime Unit assistant general counsel Richard Domingues Boscovich the combined global assault is the best way to tackle the global menace and deliver a heavy blow to the criminals’ cyber activities.
“The bad guys will feel the punch in the gut,” Domingues told Reuters.
Among the regions that are most affected by the Citadel botnets, according to the company include, the United States, Western Europe, India, Hong Kong and Australia.
The FBI’s assistant executive director Richard McFeely said the agencies are also working with Europol and over overseas agencies including Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Spain and the United Kingdom in going after the creators and distributors, even disclosing that the FBI has already obtained search warrants.
“We are upping the game in our level of commitment in going after botnet creators and distributors. This is a more concerted effort to engage our foreign partners to assist us in identifying, locating and – if we can – get U.S. criminal process on these botnet creators and distributors,” he told Reuters.
