Fiber Optic Telecommunications Networks: Federal Agents Just Brought Down the World’s Worst Botnet

James F. Booth

For more than 25 years, James Booth has provided consulting and legal services to telecommunications carriers and to enterprise companies that manage their own telecommunications networks. Since June of 2009 he has also served as General Counsel of Spread Networks, LLC, which is the industry leader in the construction and operation of low latency high speed networks. Before joining Spread he was General Counsel for OnFiber Communications, a competitive telecommunications provider, and was the sole attorney for Qwest Communications International in support of its construction of an 18,800 mile fiber optic network spanning the United States. Earlier he was lead counsel for U S WEST in its wireless and cable television ventures in the United States, Europe and Hong Kong.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Federal Agents Just Brought Down the World’s Worst Botnet

An international operation led by the Department of Justice has disabled a hacking network that generated losses of more than $100 million in the U.S. since 2011. In an announcement on Monday, the department also disclosed charges against a 30-year-old Russian allegedly behind the Gameover Zeus botnet, a web of hundreds of thousands of infected computers used to steal money from bank accounts.

Gameover Zeus, which first emerged in September 2011, infected somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million computers, putting them in the control of hackers in Russia and Ukraine, according to legal documents (PDF) unsealed today. The main purpose of creating such a network, federal officials said, is to steal banking credentials and then use them to make wire transfers overseas.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-02/federal-agents-just-brought-down-the-worlds-worst-botnet