Facebook Assists FBI in Botnet Takedown
Facebook apparently helped the FBI take down a massive botnet, according to the agency. The Butterfly Botnet, which linked together some 11 million compromised PCs, involved malicious folks from around the world. The FBI, in conjunction with international law enforcement, arrested 10 of them in countries ranging from Croatia and Macedonia to New Zealand, Peru, and the United States. While the FBI’s official press release didn’t reveal many details about the operation, the agency shone a bright spotlight on Facebook’s security team, which apparently “provided assistance to law enforcement throughout the investigation by helping to identify the root cause, the perpetrators, and those affected by the malware.” Those involved in the Butterfly botnet had apparently relied on variants of Yahos malware, which has been on security researchers’ collective radar for the past few years. In addition to Facebook, Yahos can spread via Instant Messaging applications such as Skype and MSN. According to the FBI, the social network’s security systems have evolved to detect and fix any accounts affected by Yahos. The FBI blames the botnet for roughly $850 million in losses, presumably from stolen credit card and bank account information.