Waledac, also known by its aliases Waled and Waledpak, was a botnet mostly involved in e-mail spam and malware. In March 2010 the botnet was taken down by Microsoft.[1][2]

Operations

Before its eventual takedown, the Waledac botnet consisted of an estimated 70,000–90,000 computers infected with the "Waledac" computer worm.[1] The botnet itself was capable of sending about 1.5 billion spam messages a day, or about 1% of the total global spam volume.[2][3]

On February 25, 2010, Microsoft won a court order which resulted in the temporary cut-off of 277 domain names which were being used as command and control servers for the botnet, effectively crippling a large part of the botnet.[4] However, besides operating through command and control servers the Waledac worm was also capable of operating through peer-to-peer communication between the various botnet nodes, which means that the extent of the damage was difficult to measure.[5] Codenamed 'Operation b49', an investigation was conducted for some months which thereby yielded an end to the 'zombie' computers. More than a million 'zombie' computers were brought out of the garrison of the hackers but still infected.[6]

In early September 2010, Microsoft was granted ownership of the 277 domains used by Waledac to broadcast spam email.[7]

The botnet was particularly active in North America and Europe and India, Japan and China.[8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Goodin, Dan (2010-03-16). "Waledac botnet 'decimated' by MS takedown; Up to 90,000 zombies freed". theregister.co.uk. London, UK: The Register. Retrieved 2014-01-09.
  2. 1 2 Whitney, Lance (2010-02-25). "With legal nod, Microsoft ambushes Waledac botnet | Security - CNET News". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
  3. ↑ Claburn, Thomas. "Microsoft Decapitates Waledac Botnet". InformationWeek. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
  4. ↑ Leyden, John (2010-02-25). "MS uses court order to take out Waledac botnet; Zombie network decapitated. For now". theregister.co.uk. London, UK: The Register. Retrieved 2014-01-09.
  5. ↑ "Waledac Botnet - Deployment & Communication Analysis". FortiGuard. 2009-09-30. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
  6. ↑ Help Net Security (26 February 2010). "Microsoft cripples the Waledac botnet". Net-security.org. Retrieved 2014-01-09.
  7. ↑ Acohido, Byron (2010-09-08). "Microsoft gets legal might to target spamming botnets". USA Today.
  8. ↑ "Microsoft goes to court to take down the Waledac botnet". the Guardian. 25 February 2010.
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