By Tim Greene

When Microsoft took extraordinary steps earlier this month to disrupt the Nitol botnet it was the fifth time its Digital Crimes Unit had taken action against such threats, each time expanding its technical and legal toolkit for making it harder and more expensive to run cybercrime enterprises.

Using a creative interpretation of some common law precedents as well as the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, DCU won a court order granting Microsoft control over an entire Internet domain to which it had traced command and control servers that rode herd over the botnet.

The company then used new technology from partner firm Nominum to disable only those subdomains proven to harbor malicious activities, leaving the rest to function unmolested.

While the effort doesn't guarantee the demise of Nitol it does make things more difficult for the people behind it, and it serves notice to other criminals that Microsoft might strike them at any time, says Richard Boscovich, assistant general counsel for the DCU.

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Source: Network World