US Just Took Down a 20-Year-Old Russian-Linked Cybercrime Operation — CrowdStrike Helps Disrupt Sality Botnet Behind Years of Attacks | #cybercrime | #infosec


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A more than 20-year-old Russian cybercrime operation known as Sality is being dismantled by U.S. law enforcement agencies in collaboration with cybersecurity company CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., the Department of Justice said.

On Monday, CrowdStrike, in collaboration with the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, or DCIS, the Shadowserver Foundation, international law enforcement, and private industry partners, executed a peer-to-peer sinkhole operation and coordinated the disruption of the Sality botnet.

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The agencies seized Sality-linked domains in the U.S., while international law enforcement partners in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania took action against additional Sality-linked domains hosted in Europe, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California said in a statement.

Since 2003, the Sality botnet has installed malicious software on compromised devices, enabling cryptocurrency theft and cyberattacks on victims in the U.S. and abroad.

“Cybercriminals, botnets, and malware are a clear and present danger to our nation’s security and economy,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.

Previously, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and CrowdStrike had noted that SALTY SPIDER is a criminal group that is likely operating out of Russia and is the one that developed the botnet Sality.

Image via Shutterstock

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