FBI and Dutch police seize and shut down botnet of hacked routers

A joint international law enforcement action shut down two services accused of providing a botnet of hacked internet-connected devices, including routers, to cybercriminals. U.S. prosecutors also indicted four people accused of hacking into the devices and running the botnet. On Wednesday, the websites of Anyproxy and 5Socks were replaced with notices stating they had been seized by the FBI as part of a law enforcement operation called “Operation Moonlander.” The notice said the law enforcement action was carried out by the FBI, the Dutch National Police (Politie), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma, and the U.S. Department of Justice. Then on Friday, U.S. prosecutors announced the dismantling of the botnet and the indictment of three Russians: Alexey Viktorovich Chertkov, Kirill Vladimirovich Morozov, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Shishkin; and Dmitriy Rubtsov, a Kazakhstan national. The four are accused of profiting from running Anyproxy and 5Socks under th ... Read full article.