According to the Public Prosecution Service, Qakbot is also known as ‘Qbot and ‘Pinkslipbot’ and will enable cybercriminals to ransomware attack commit financial fraud and other crimes. “These are malicious programs that allow criminals to remotely control your computer,” explains cybersecurity expert Willem Zeeman of Fox-IT. “They can see what you type and steal passwords.”

Friday through Saturday night, Qakbot is taken over by the FBI in Los Angeles. The botnet is then disabled and traffic on the network is then routed to servers under FBI control. More than 8.6 million dollars (about 7.9 million euros) in cryptocurrencies were confiscated.

Stopping Qakbot doesn’t mean ending cybercrime, says Willem Zeeman. “But doing nothing is also not an option,” he told RTL Nieuws. “There are many other botnets, but Qakbot is one of the bigger botnets.”

Others are cyber crimes

According to OM, Qakbot is especially dangerous because the malware “opens the door for other forms of cybercrime.” This allows criminal groups to gain access to infected computer networks for a fee. They can in turn install ransomware on it.

This malware has been spreading via phishing emails since 2008. Victims of Qakbot are not aware that their computers are infected with the malware.

Get rid of malware

Qakbot ‘infected’ computers can remove the malware with an update. At least 700,000 computers worldwide have been affected by bot networks in the past year.

Police and justice agencies estimate that botnets have caused hundreds of millions of euros in losses to companies and government agencies. You can find out on the police website your login details appears in the currently verified data set of this study.

“If you’re one of them, it’s a good idea to reset your password and check your computer,” says Zeeman.

Cooperation countries

The international action was carried out by the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Romania and Lithuania.

Specifically in the Netherlands, 22 servers were seized, which were connected to the ‘evil Qakbot’. Computer servers have also gone offline in France and Germany.