US crime-fighters are closing in on a gang behind a huge botnet after taking control of the criminals’ servers.

It is the first time FBI investigators have used such a method.

The US Justice Department had to seek court permission from a judge to carry out the sting.

It enabled the authorities to issue its own commands, effectively ordering the malware to shut down. It also logged the IP addresses of compromised machines.

It means the authorities will be able to notify ISPs about which machines have been infected and ISPs in turn can let victims know that their machines had been taken over.

A similar approach was used last year by Dutch police as part of its shutdown of the Bredolab botnet.

At the time, privacy experts questioned the legality of such a move.

Read More/Source: BBC News