Microsoft started the war against the Kremlin Hackers

Microsoft began an “offensive operation” against the hacker group Fancy Bear, which is considered close to the Kremlin. It is reported by The Daily Beast.

According to the publication, the American Corporation last year appealed to the Washington Federal Court with a complaint about the hacker group for invasion of the computer network, as well as cyberskvotting - violation of the rights to trademarks in the name of domains. “However, this action is not aimed at dragging the hackers to court,” the material says. Microsoft used the lawsuit to get Fancy Bear 70 of various command-control servers that hackers use to secretly direct the malicious software to computers.

Instead of taking under physical arrest the servers that Fancy Bear rents from data processing centers around the world, Microsoft captured the names of Internet domains that lead to them. We are talking about addresses, such as Livemicrosoft.net or RSSHOTMAL.com, which hackers register under fictitious names. As soon as the domains fall under the control of Microsoft, they redirect from Russian servers to the company servers, cutting off hackers from their victims and providing Microsoft with the ability to study the encrypted messages transmitted through them.

According to the publication, the Microsoft operation against Fancy Bear is the first example of how the technological company tried to directly disrupt foreign intelligence operations on a large scale. The shutdown of Fancy Bear does not affect all malicious groups, however, “how Microsoft drowns their domains” increases the costs of Fancy Bear.

In the future, the American corporation will seek a warrant who would confiscate other domains from Fancy Bear, even those that have not yet been registered, but, according to Microsoft, can be used by hackers.