Microsoft may chase botnet operators through the Steppes

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By GCN Staff,
GCN

By GCN Staff,
GCN

|

The software goes after the operators of the dead botnet Rustock with newspaper ads and considers using Russia's legal system if the operators don't show up to defend themselves in a U.S. federal court.

Microsoft will keep pursuing the operators of the dead botnet Rustock that used to send huge amounts of spam, and  has put notifications in two Russian newspapers, a legal action required as part of an ongoing lawsuit in the United States, Richard Boscovich, a senior attorney with Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit, wrote on the company's website.

The advertisements are to notify unnamed defendants in the lawsuit and give them the chance to make their case, although it's unlikely that anyone associated with Rustock would come forward. Microsoft thinks Rustock's operators are in Russia, Jeremy Kirk wrote in IDG News Service, an affiliate of Network World.

If those people don't show up, Microsoft will keep chasing them, perhaps through the Russian legal system, Boscovich wrote.

In March, law enforcement officers raided hosting providers in the U.S. that had infrastructure that supported the botnet. Microsoft filed a lawsuit in a U.S. district court against 11 unnamed defendants that the company is still trying to identify, the articles explain.

The advertisements will run for 30 days in the Delovoy Peterburg newspaper, located in St. Petersburg, and in The Moscow News, a daily newspaper, Boscovich wrote.

NEXT STORY: Are agencies getting on board with telework?

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