Windows 7: Microsoft, Symantec shutter another botnet

Microsoft and security software maker Symantec have revealed that they collaborated on the take-down of a botnet that had infected hundreds of thousands of computers.



By stopping the botnet, infected computers were reportedly unable to search the Internet. According to the story as first reported by Reuters, this is the first time that the companies which stopped the botnet directly warned people who had infected computers and offered them clean-up tools.

The botnet, called Bamital, is the sixth one that that Microsoft has received a court order to stop since 2010 and the second that it has worked with Symantec to halt. Last week, the companies asked for a court approval to shut it down, reported Reuters.

Only a medium-size one, with 300,000 to 600,000 infected computers, it was not easy to stop.

No mention. Didn't MS buy McAfee?