Shadow botnet killed from within

The Dutch High Tech Crime Unit and Kaspersky turn the tables on the Shadow botnet.

Police nab Shadow creators, force botnet to commit suicide - Ars Technica

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The arrests actually occurred several weeks ago, on July 29, but it's what happened afterwards that has made this situation interesting. Instead of simply shutting the botnet down, the High Crime Tech Unit took control of it. Once Shadow was secured, the police contacted Kaspersky Labs about providing a means to neutralize the malware. Kaspersky has made their fix public, and will also deploy the instructions over the Shadow botnet itself.

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Now I'm curious as to how they were able to catch the pair in the first place. I thought botnet operators were notoriously "shadowy"...

According to the NY Times, they were trying to sell the thing to a Brazilian for 25,000 Euro:

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When the bust occurred, the 19-year-old was attempting to sell the botnet for €25,000 (US$37,290), a price Willems said is way too high in proportion to how botnets are currently priced.

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AFAIK the FBI contacted the dutch police. They in turn did their own investigation which led to the 19 y/o. The rest is, as they say, history :)

The Brazilian buyer got extradited to the US.