A global victory for cyber-crime fighters

In a significant coup for global cyber-crime fighters, the Mariposa botnet has been shut down by a coordinated multi-country effort. The botnet had vexed authorities around the globe, as it spread quickly and wreaked havoc on entities big and small. It stole financial and other information from half of the largest 1,000 companies in the U.S.

The breadth of the network was stunning: It encompassed more than 12 million computers in 190 countries. Internet service providers, private researchers, Spanish police and the FBI were able to track down the three men accused of running the operation; they were arrested in Spain recently. Authorities are on the heels of a fourth man, who might be in Venezuela. Unfortunately, there are many more illicit networks of computers that are being operated from God knows where. The good guys have their work cut out for them. Still, this can be counted as a victory, one that follows the previous shut down of the Conficker network. 

For more:
- here's a Financial Times article 
- here's a USA Today primer on these sorts of attacks
- here's a USA Today article on the Koobface worm

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