Microsoft has taken action to disrupt a botnet called Trickbot, one of the world’s most infamous botnets and prolific distributors of ransomware. Trickbot has infected over a million computing devices around the world since late 2016.
According to Tom Burt - Corporate Vice President, Customer Security & Trust, at Microsoft, the company disrupted Trickbot through a court order they obtained as well as technical action they executed in partnership with telecommunications providers around the world. "We have now cut off key infrastructure so those operating Trickbot will no longer be able to initiate new infections or activate ransomware already dropped into computer systems," said Burt. "In addition to protecting election infrastructure from ransomware attacks, today’s action will protect a wide range of organizations including financial services institutions, government agencies, healthcare facilities, businesses and universities from the various malware infections Trickbot enabled."