Judge grants "License to Kill" to Microsoft

Alexandria (ip-192.com): A Virginia court cleared the way for Microsoft to deactivate a global network of computers that spreads spam and harmful computer code, the Wall Street Journal reports. The hacker-controlled “botnet” has 277 dot-com domains. Microsoft apparently aims to sever communications channels to the botnet before its operators can re-establish links to the network.

The network, called Waledac, is thought to be controlled by Eastern European hackers and has been a major source of computer infections and spam over the past year. In a lawsuit filed Monday with the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia, Microsoft argues that VeriSign, which manages the domain, is a choke-point for the botnet.

"This action has quickly and effectively cut off traffic to Waledac at the '.com' or domain registry level, severing the connection between the command and control centers of the botnet and most of its thousands of zombie computers around the world," Microsoft said in its blog post announcing the effort.

It is believed that the Waledac botnet did have the capacity to send over 1.5 billion spam emails per day. 651 million spam emails from Waledac went to Hotmail accounts alone during a three-week period in December 2009, according to Microsoft. The emails included offers and scams related to online pharmacies, jobs, penny stocks, and imitation goods.

"At Microsoft, we don't accept the idea that botnets are a fact of life," said Tim Cranton, associate general counsel at Microsoft, in a blog. "We are a founding member of the Botnet Task Force, a public-private partnership to join industry and government in the fight against bots. That's why I'm proud to announce that through legal action and technical cooperation with industry partners, we have executed a major botnet takedown of Waledac, a large and well-known spambot."