botnent

Microsoft made a statement Thursday that it took down one of the biggest producers of spam e-mail in association and partnership with US federal authorities.

The Redmond company said that its legal action against orchestrators of the Rustock botnet resulted in raids across the country on Thursday which effectively shut the network down.

Microsoft was granted a recommendation by a federal magistrate judge to size 276 internet addresses used to control “Waledac,” a massive botnet that the software company has been working to bring down. The recommendation by Magistrate Judge John F. Anderson of the US District Court for Eastern Virginia is a victory in Microsoft's experimental campaign to wrest control of one of the net's biggest menaces.