Microsoft Secures Court Order to Disrupt Botnet ‘Trickbot’

Microsoft has obtained a court order and carried out a technical action to counter Trickbot, a botnet known for distributing ransomware, to protect election infrastructure, government agencies, health care facilities, financial service institutions and businesses from ransomware attacks.

The company analyzed about 61K samples of Trickbot malware and found that the botnet infects computers, routers and other internet of things devices through its modular capabilities, Tom Burt, corporate vice president for customer security and trust at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post published Monday.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued Microsoft a court order to stop the botnet’s operations based on pieces of evidence collected by the company’s digital crimes unit and additional insights from a network of telecommunications providers and industry partners.

Those partners include the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, NTT, ESET, Broadcom’s Symantec division and Lumen Technologies’ Black Lotus Labs business.

“Our case includes copyright claims against Trickbot’s malicious use of our software code,” Burt wrote. “This approach is an important development in our efforts to stop the spread of malware, allowing us to take civil action to protect customers in the large number of countries around the world that have these laws in place."