Miracle · June 2 2014

The Miracle of Operation Tovar

The wonder

On 2 June 2014 it was announced that, starting on 30 May, an international coalition had taken control of the peer-to-peer GameOver Zeus botnet, which stole banking credentials, and cut off the distribution of CryptoLocker ransomware. Charges were unsealed against Evgeniy Bogachev, alleged to be the ring's leader. Shortly afterwards researchers released a free service to decrypt CryptoLocker victims' files.

The miracle worker

The FBI, the UK's National Crime Agency and Europol's EC3, with private researchers including CrowdStrike, Dell SecureWorks, Fox-IT and the Shadowserver Foundation, who managed to hijack a botnet that had no centre to switch off.

Thanksgiving

For a headless network disarmed node by node, and for files returned to those who thought them lost, we give thanks. Amen.