Microsoft seizes Zeus botnet servers

For the second time in less than a year, Microsoft has helped bust a botnet, Information Week reports.

On Friday, US Marshals, together with representatives from Microsoft and two financial industry associations, seized Zeus botnet command-and-control (C&C) servers located at two hosting centres in Lombard, Illinois, and Scranton, Pennsylvania.

According to Total Telecom, rather than shutting down the servers and addresses, Microsoft plans to maintain them in an effort to upset the operation.

"By doing that we are forcing those bot-herders to work on backups, introducing uncertainty into the operation and raising the cost of business," Richard Boscovich, Microsoft's senior digital crime attorney, says, using the colloquial term for people who run botnets.

"Our goal is disruption."

Microsoft acknowledges that the complexity of the Zeus family of botnets makes a complete shutdown impossible, but it believes this raid will significantly impact the organisations behind the scenes, The Verge writes.

The company says the case and operation are ongoing.