Botnets are a major scourge of the internet-connected world, but this week Microsoft won a key victory over the people who run them. A judge has recommended that legal ownership of 276 domain names used for the Waledac botnet be transferred to the company so that it can finally be shut down.
This comes after the court granted a temporary restraining-order against those same domains in February. Microsoft, along with a number of partners, worked for months to investigate, plan and co-ordinate the action to bring down the command servers before the bot-herders were able to move their operations.
A map showing Waledac infections worldwide
Waledac was one of the largest botnets in existence and at its peak controlled almost 70,000 infected PCs. This allowed it to send up to 1.5 billion spam e-mails every day.
With ownership of the domains transferred to Microsoft, it will be able to shut-down the command and control servers for good, preventing the botnet from recovering. However, it won't be able to help the tens of thousands of computers still infected with the original malware.
Though Waledac has been all but inactive since the original restraining order was granted, this week's decision - the first of its kind - will hopefully be the one of many. Its success may make it quicker and easier for others to use the power of the courts to help stop spammers.
Default judgement will be filed in Microsoft's favour in two weeks time, assuming that the defendants don't object to the decision during that period.
