Microsoft Botnet-Hunting Tool Helps Bust Hackers
Sûreté du Québec officers had heard about Microsoft's tool in at a 2006 Microsoft law enforcement conference. A few months later, they decided to give it a try.
Analysis by Microsoft's software allowed investigators to identify which IP address was being used to operate the botnet, Gaudreau said. And that cracked the case.
Building up this kind of case sometimes can involve staying on top of network traffic and malicious software over a long period of time, said Paul Ferguson, a network architect with anti-virus vendor Trend Micro who works with law enforcement on similar cases.
This is an area where companies can really help out with criminal investigations, he added. "We need to see a lot more cooperation between law enforcement and private industry," Ferguson said. "Law enforcement is ill-equipped to handle the global scale and the sheer volume of the threats."
According to Gaudreau, he'd still be stalking his botnet hackers if not for Microsoft. "If we hadn't had that tool it would have maybe taken two years more to do the investigation," he said.
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