Dutch police say they have disrupted a massive botnet consisting of 17 million infected computers, smartphones, and tablets.
According to the authorities, the botnet was discovered after a security researcher reported it to the Netherlands’ National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NL).
During their investigation into the botnet, the authorities identified 200 servers used to control infected devices and launch cyberattacks.
As part of the takedown efforts, several servers associated with the botnet were seized from a hosting provider in the Netherlands, and the provider took down the entire network for being used for illicit activities, the police say.
“Criminals can remotely control the devices, often without the owner noticing. Botnets are used for cyberattacks, sending spam and phishing emails, online fraud, and disrupting websites by sending large amounts of internet traffic simultaneously,” the Dutch police said.
The Dutch authorities did not name the hosting provider, nor the botnet, but local media reports that the takedown operation targeted Asocks, a company that provides residential proxy services.
The botnet consisted of consumer devices reportedly infected with malware, allowing cybercriminals to control them remotely and use them to route malicious traffic as part of large-scale cyberattacks.
Users are advised to keep their devices updated, keep track of edge devices connected to their networks, use unique, strong passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA), install apps only from trusted sources, secure their Wi-Fi networks, and use anti-malware solutions on their devices.
The disruption follows the takedown of Aisuru, Kimwolf, and other botnets used to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Kimwolf, believed to have infected over 2 million devices, was also propagating through residential proxy networks.
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