Windows 7: Microsoft Intercepts 'Nitol' Botnet And 70,000 Malicious Domains

Microsoft has sinkholed yet another botnet: This time, it's one out of China that also spread via counterfeit software secretly embedded with the malware.



Richard Domingues Boscovich, assistant general counsel for the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, announced today in a blog post that Microsoft won a court order to host 3322.org, a notorious Internet domain out of which the so-called Nitol botnet operated. The infamous domain also hosts another 70,000 malicious subdomains and 500 different strains of malware, including Nitol. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted Microsoft's request for an ex parte restraining order against Peng Yong, his company, and other John Does, according to Boscovich.

So now Microsoft is intercepting any malicious traffic from the 3322.org domain, which hosts some 3 million subdomains, but not all of which are nefarious.