Bredolab botnet beheaded

Botnet takedowns have become a common occurrence this year, and the last one to be hit is Bredolab. Counting some 30 million bots and nearly 150 command and control centers, it was one of the biggest in existence – until today.

The High Tech Crime Team of the Dutch National Crime Squad has announced the takedown of 143 C&C servers, with the help of the Dutch Forensic Institute, the internet security company Fox IT and GOVCERT.NL, the Dutch computer emergency response team, and with the complete cooperation of LeaseWeb, the largest hosting provider in the country, on whose IP space the servers were hosted.

“Users of computers with viruses from this network will receive a notice of at the time of next login with information on the degree of infection. They will receive helpful advice on removing the viruses from their system,” said the police in the press announcement.

According to Mikko Hypponen, a 27-year old man arrested in Armenia is though to be one of the operators of the Bredolab botnet.

“The Dutch High Tech Crime Team discovered this botnet system in the late summer,” shared the police. “During its investigation, the Team determined that the network was capable of infecting 3 million computers a month. At the end of 2009 it was estimated that 3.6 billion emails with Bredolab virus payloads were sent daily to unsuspecting computer users.”