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FRANCE-POLICE-COMPUTERS-HACKING
French cyberpolice break up massive ‘botnet’ ring
PARIS, Aug 28, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – French police have neutralised a hacking
operation that had taken control of more than 850,000 computers, mainly in
Latin America, while also managing to remove the malware from the infected
devices.
The agents went into action last spring after the Czech antivirus firm
Avast alerted them to the software worm, called Retadup, that was being
controlled by a server in the Paris region.
The C3N cybercrime unit at the French gendarmerie, which carried out the
counterattack with help from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, called
it a “world first” in a statement late Tuesday.
“It’s a huge operation” given the number of computers infected, said
Gerome Billois, a cybersecurity expert at the French IT services firm
Wavestone.
Police first made a copy of the server orchestrating the attack, which
allowed them to then hack into it and surreptitiously take control.
They then ordered all the infected computers to uninstall the Retadup
malware, which police said was allowing the pirates to create the Monero
cryptocurrency.
Retadup is also suspected of being used in several ransomware attacks and
data thefts, the gendarmerie said.
“Don’t click on links if you’re not sure who sent you the email,” Colonel
Jean-Dominique Nollet, head of the C3N unit, told France Inter radio on
Tuesday.
“Don’t click on attachments either, and use up-to-date antivirus
programmes, even free ones,” Nollet said. “And try not to do anything stupid
on the internet.”
According to Avast, nearly 85 percent of the infected computers did not
have antivirus programmes, while others had them but they had been
deactivated.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1925HRS