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The world's largest software maker has also
identified at least another 4.7 million infected machines,
though many are likely still controlled by cyber fraudsters,
Microsoft's cybercrime-fighting Digital Crimes Unit said on
Thursday.
India, followed by Pakistan, Egypt, Brazil, Algeria and Mexico
have the largest number of infected machines, in the first
high-profile case involving malware developed outside Eastern
Europe.
Richard Domingues Boscovich, assistant general counsel of the
unit, said Microsoft would quickly provide government
authorities and Internet service providers around the world with
the IP addresses of infected machines so they can help users
remove the viruses.
"Those victims are currently not aware they are infected,"
Boscovich said in an interview.
The operation is the most successful of the 10 launched to date
by Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit, based on the number of
infected machines identified, Boscovich said.
Microsoft located the compromised PCs by intercepting traffic
headed to servers at Reno, Nevada-based Vitalwerks Internet
Solutions, which the software maker said criminals used to
communicate with compromised PCs through free accounts on its
No-IP.com services.
Vitalwerks criticized the way Microsoft handled the operation,
saying some 1.8 million of its users lost service for several
days. The Internet services firm said that it would have been
glad to help Microsoft, without interrupting service to
legitimate users.
Microsoft has apologized, blaming "a technical error" for the
disruption, saying service to customers has been
restored.[ID:L2N0PK1R4]
The operation, which began on June 30 under a federal court
order, targeted malicious software known as Bladabindi and
Jenxcus, which Microsoft said work in similar ways and were
written and distributed by developers in Kuwait and Algeria.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Richard Chang)
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