The FBI, as part of an international operation, eliminated the Qakbot botnet, which infected more than 700,000 computers worldwide. This is reported by the US Department of Justice.
In recent years, Qakbot has been heavily exploited by ransomware groups including Conti, ProLock, Egregor, REvil, MegaCortex, and Black Basta.
According to the investigation, from October 2021 to April 2023, Qakbot administrators received approximately $58 million in ransom paid by the victims. Law enforcement officers seized more than $8.6 million in bitcoins.
Initially, malware entered victims’ computers through phishing mailing lists. In the future, with its help, operators installed ransomware.
The FBI was able to gain access to the Qakbot infrastructure and disable the botnet.
Recall that in May, the US Department of Justice announced the elimination of an international network of computers infected with the Snake P2P botnet and involved in espionage by the Russian Federation. According to the department, the malware was distributed by the Turla hacker group associated with the FSB.
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