US says it disrupted botnets that infected over 3 million devices worldwide

The US Justice Department on Thursday said it took part in an operation with Germany and Canada to take down infrastructure used by four major botnets that infected more than 3 million devices worldwide, including hundreds of thousands in the US.

The malicious networks - Aisuru, KimWolf, JackSkid and Mossad - were used to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, with some Department of Defense websites among the targets, the Justice Department said.

Most infected devices were part of the so-called Internet of Things, or web-connected appliances like webcams, digital video recorders, or Wi-Fi routers, the Department of Justice said. Operators of the botnets carried out hundreds of thousands of DDoS attacks, targeting computers and servers around the world, including IP addresses owned by the Department of Defense Information Network. In some cases, they demanded payments from their victims, according to the statement.

"Today's disruption of four powerful botnets highlights our commitment to eliminate emerging cyber threats to the Department of Defense and its warfighters," said Kenneth DeChellis, a special agent in charge at the Department of Defense Investigative Service.

The operation, conducted simultaneously in the US, Germany and Canada, targeted individuals behind the botnets, the Department of Justice said.

The statement listed nearly two dozen major tech companies that helped the operation, including Amazon Web Services, Google, PayPal and Nokia, and the PowerOff team of the European Union's law enforcement agency, Europol, whose operation against cybercriminals focusing on DDoS attacks has been running since 2017.