Microsoft Launches A Counterattack Against Russia's 'Fancy Bear' Hackers (thedailybeast.com)

Kevin Poulsen writes on the Daily Beast: It turns out Microsoft has something even more formidable than Moscow's malware: Lawyers. Last year attorneys for the software maker quietly sued the hacker group known as Fancy Bear in a federal court outside Washington DC, accusing it of computer intrusion, cybersquatting, and infringing on Microsoft's trademarks... Since August, Microsoft has used the lawsuit to wrest control of 70 different command-and-control points from Fancy Bear... Rather than getting physical custody of the servers, which Fancy Bear rents from data centers around the world, Microsoft has been taking over the Internet domain names that route to them. These are addresses like "livemicrosoft[.]net" or "rsshotmail[.]com" that Fancy Bear registers under aliases for about $10 each. Once under Microsoft's control, the domains get redirected from Russia's servers to the company's, cutting off the hackers from their victims, and giving Microsoft a omniscient view of that servers' network of automated spies. "In other words," Microsoft outside counsel Sten Jenson explained in a court filing last year, "any time an infected computer attempts to contact a command-and-control server through one of the domains, it will instead be connected to a Microsoft-controlled, secure server."

Comments

If It Weren't For Russia

[Anonymous Coward]

There'd be colonies on Mars.

Re:If It Weren't For Russia

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't wanna see my German.

Re:If It Weren't For Russia

[Anonymous Coward]

Me fail English? That is unpossible!

Identifying victims

[Anonymous Coward]

With a court order they can look up who is behind the compromised IP.
Then they can call them up from "Microsoft Techsupport" to inform them that they've been infected with a virus!

Now that's service!

If it weren't for Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

We would all be trying to browse the internet with Netscape Navigator... on a Macintosh... using 5 1/4" floppy disks... and Linux and Unix would be nonexistent... and Hillary Clinton would be the president of the USA... in 2017.

Re:Reality check

[allcoolnameswheretak]

No! Just stop it! You are being so unfair to President Trump!
If you just started accepting alternative facts into your life, you'd see how in the alternative reality in which I Trump supporter live, President Trump is the greatestest, most honestest, competentest President this country has ever had! You have just been brainwashed by the FAKE NEWS mainstream media!

Leave President Pussygraber alone! ;ÂÂ(