Microsoft is raiding malware operations around the country. With the help of US Marshals, Microsoft on Friday busted outfits in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Lombard, Illinois, seizing servers believed to be running botnets used for identity theft.
“The sweep was part of a civil suit brought by Microsoft in its increasingly aggressive campaign to take the lead in combating such crimes, rather than waiting for law enforcement agencies to act,” according to The New York Times. “The company’s targets were equipment used to control the botnets, which criminals, known as bot-herders, use for ill intent.”
“The botnets are infected with the Zeus family of malware, which uses keylogging to go after a user’s financial information,” reports The Verge. Microsoft is reporting 13 million suspected Zeus infections worldwide since 2007, with more than three million just in the US.