Google Wins Court Order to Shut Down CryptBot Malware Domains

Google has secured a court order to shut down domains associated with the distribution of CryptBot, an information-stealing malware that has plagued internet users, particularly via Chrome. The tech giant sued the malware distributors, accusing them of computer fraud, abuse and trademark infringement by using Google's marks in their scheme.

CryptBot has caused significant concern, infecting some 670,000 Windows computers over the past year. The malicious software focuses on Chrome users, extracting their login details, browser cookies, digital currencies, and other confidential data from their computers.

This week, a New York federal judge unsealed the lawsuit filed by Google against the malware distributors.

“Our litigation was filed against several of CryptBot’s major distributors who we believe are based in Pakistan and operate a worldwide criminal enterprise,” reads Google’s announcement.

The court gave Google a provisional injunction, enabling the tech giant to efficiently disable the internet infrastructure used by the bot operators.

Typically, in such cases, a restraining order allows Google to approach registrars and registries under the court's jurisdiction to disable specific domains associated with the malware.

In this instance, however, the court order granted Google additional powers to address the situation more effectively. The company can now show the restraining order to network providers and hosting services, allowing them to block connections to servers used by CryptBot. Google can also request that any hardware or virtual machines involved in the malware operation be switched off and their services suspended.

“The court order allows us to take down current and future domains that are tied to the distribution of CryptBot,” said the company’s Head of Litigation Advance Mike Trinh and Threat Analysis Group Pierre-Marc Bureau. “This will slow new infections from occurring and decelerate the growth of CryptBot. Lawsuits have the effect of establishing both legal precedent and putting those profiting, and others who are in the same criminal ecosystem, under scrutiny.”

The court order also requires the preservation and handover of materials that may identify CryptBot's operators, as well as the implementation of measures to keep the malware infrastructure offline.

This expanded authority highlights the severity of the CryptBot malware issue and the importance of a comprehensive approach to combat cyber threats. By granting Google these extensive powers, the court order seeks to address the problem at its core and prevent further harm to users.

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• Web filtering module that can assess whether search results are safe before you access them and blocks all known infected links