Researchers take down Mega-D, one of top 10 botnets

Atif Mushtaq, a researcher at FireEye security company, has coordinated a global effort to take down of one of the top 10 botnets – Mega-D.

PC world said the botnet controlled 250,000 machines in a massive network that was responsible for nearly 12 percent of world spam according to Message Labs statistics.

Mushtaq and those working with him coordinated their efforts with Internet service providers to isolate the Mega-D command-and-control servers in Israel, Turkey and the U.S.

The researchers shared their information with U.S. federal law-enforcement agencies and said the federal agencies should begin similar research and takedowns on a full-time basis.

Story here.

“Top 10 botnets and their impact” (December 9)