US law enforcement dismantled four massive botnets controlling 3 million hacked devices used in the largest DDoS attacks ever recorded.
Washington, DC: US law enforcement wiped out four massive botnets that controlled millions of hacked computers and devices.
Government agencies removed the command-and-control servers for JackSkid, Mossad, Aisuru, and Kimwolf botnets. These networks together had over 3 million infected devices. Hackers rented access to these networks or used them to overwhelm websites with too much traffic.
Aisuru and Kimwolf were the biggest ones. Combined, they infected more than a million devices including smart TVs, webcams, and DVRs. They worked together to launch a massive attack last November that hit 30 terabits of data per second – three times bigger than any previous attack. That’s like if everyone in three large countries all tried to visit a website at once.
No arrests were announced, but US officials worked with Canada and Germany to target the people who ran these networks. The botnets were all based on Mirai code, which first appeared in 2016 and has been used in record-breaking attacks ever since.