By cracking the algorithm to create random domain names, Microsoft has finally put a stop to the Necurs bot network.
Microsoft announces that in collaboration with several other players, Necurs, a bot network that has infected more than nine million computers around the world, has stopped.
The takedown is a result of Microsoft’s experts cracking the algorithm that Necurs has used to create random domain names.
We could then predict more than six million unique domains that would be created in the next 25 months,” says Tom Burt from Microsoft’s security department on the company’s blog.
On March 5, Microsoft’s lawyers chose to go to a US court with a request to gain control of all Necur’s domains in the United States, which was granted without much delay. The next step was to work jointly with security companies, operators and police authorities in 35 countries where the botnet worked.
The hope is that the dismantling of Necurs will lead to a substantial reduction in the amount of junk and scam emails in the near future. It is reported that an individual computer sent 3.8 million junk e-mails to 40.6 million users over a period of 58 days.
