Earlier this week, Microsoft Corp. launched an operation that the organization hopes will significantly eliminate cyber crime. According to a recent Reuters article, Microsoft’s efforts started yesterday under an order issued by a federal court in Nevada, which targeted traffic involving malicious software known as Bladabindi and Jenxcus.
Assistant general counsel of Microsoft’s cybercrime-fighting Digital Crimes Unit Richard Domingues Boscovich told the news source that this is the first high-profile case involving malware written by developers outside of Eastern Europe.
“We never seen malware coded outside Eastern Europe that is as big as this,” Boscovich said. “This really demonstrates the globalization of cybercrime.”
The news source explained that the effort aims to disrupt communications channels between hackers and infected PCs. Additionally, the harmful software was purchased by at least 500 customers, who are identified in the court documents as John Does 1 to 500.
While Boscovich said that it could take several days to find out how many machines were infected. However, Boscovich added that the number could be high. He explained that this is because Microsoft’s anti-virus software alone has detected some 7.4 million infections over the past year, and is installed on less than 30 percent of the world’s PCs.
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