Judge Helps Microsoft Seize Control of Botnet Domains
Judge Helps Microsoft Seize Control of Botnet Domains
Posted 09/09/2010 at 6:40am
| by Paul Lilly
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Microsoft made a compelling case to the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia, which has granted a motion essentially handing over to Microsoft permanent ownership of 276 Web domains used as command and control centers by the Waledac spam botnet.
District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema issued the temporary restraining order to take all 276 domains offline, an unusual move since the owner of the domains weren't in court to plead their case. This procedure is known as "ex parte," and normally a judge wouldn't give away property without the rightful owners present. As far as the judge is concerned, however, the registrants had every chance to step foward after being provided notices online and in print publications.
"It's open season on botnets," Microsoft senior attorney Richard Boscovich Sr. said in a statement. "The hunting licenses have been handed out, and we're coming back for more."
Microsoft said that during one recent seven-day period, it counted 58,000 PCs attempting 14.6 million connections to the 276 Waledac domains. At its peak in 2009, Waledac was responsible for some 1.5 billion spam messages per day.
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Lhot
September 09, 2010 at 1:48pm
How about YOU try reading the article....
"Microsoft made a compelling case to the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia, which has granted a motion essentially handing over to Microsoft permanent ownership of 276 Web domains used as command and control centers by the Waledac spam botnet".
The 2nd paragrapgh IMPLIES that the judge issued temporary restraining orders to the [ORIGINAL] domain owners. No where does is say that MS can't or won't make use of them.
codepath
September 10, 2010 at 5:14am
Microsoft doesn't need these for their own use. If they wanted to, MS could create a 1000+ domain botnet in a day. They certainly have the resources and expertise. Who knows, they may have one already (just saying).
But, if they really wanted or needed a botnet for their own purposes, they would just build one.
comptech08
September 09, 2010 at 6:20pm
Although these botnets are theoretically stopped. I still think it is scary how a judge can just give somebody else's property to somebody else. It may have helped reduce spam, but it set a precedent.
whr4usa
September 09, 2010 at 12:54pm
dude try reading the article
Ms doesn't own these botnets they just asked the courts to take them offline (which is legal, ethical, helps everybody) & their no-brainer motion was granted
Cache
September 09, 2010 at 12:13pm
It's okay--I understand MS is giving 5 domains to each Kin owner to further apologize for such a stupid, stupid phone.
CentiZen
September 09, 2010 at 10:24am
I swear to god if I see this picture one more time I am going to puke! Can't you guys... you know, use more than a single picture for every Microsoft article?
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