DOJ, international law enforcement strike major malware network

A massive malware network that has caused an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars in damage was hobbled in a multinational law enforcement effort, various agencies announced Thursday.

{mosads}The Avalanche family included banking Trojans and ransomware using the same command servers. It was raided in what the Justice Department and FBI termed the “start” of the operation on Wednesday by a team including Justice, the Public Prosecutor’s Office Verden and the Luneburg Police of Germany, Europol, Eurojust and investigators and prosecutors from more than 40 countries.

Law enforcement officials shuttered 50 servers and 800,000 domains associated with the Avalanche infrastructure and conducted searches and arrests in five countries.

In a joint statement, representatives from the FBI and Department of Justice said that more information on the operation and victims would be released next week.