engine - 2:31 pm on Feb 25, 2010 (gmt 0)

Report: Microsoft Gets Court Approval To Deactivate a Botnet [uk.reuters.com]

Software giant Microsoft Corp has won a U.S. court approval to deactivate a global network of computers that the company accused of spreading spam and harmful computer codes, the Wall Street Journal said. A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, granted a request by Microsoft to deactivate 277 Internet domains, which the software maker said is linked to a "botnet," the paper said. A botnet is an army of infected computers that hackers can control from a central machine. The company aims to secretly sever communications channels to the botnet before its operators can re-establish links to the network, the paper said.