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WORLD NEWS Thursday 28 January 2021
Cyber cops team up to disrupt top malware-seeding network

By MIKE CORDER and with financial theft through
FRANK BAJAK a banking trojan.
Associated Press They said two of the main
THE HAGUE, Netherlands servers for the infrastructure
(AP) — European and North were based in the Nether-
American cyber cops have lands and a third in another
joined forces to disrupt undisclosed country.
what may be the world’s The Emotet botnet was ef-
largest network for seeding fectively used to manage
malware infections, striking infections of victims and
a major blow against crimi- provide a distributed bul-
nal gangs that have been wark against takedown at-
using it for years to install tempts by authorities. In the
ransomware in extortion disruption by law enforce-
schemes, steal data and ment, its command-and-
engage in financial theft. control infrastructure was
European Union police routed to servers controlled
and the judicial agencies by law enforcement, cut-
Europol and Eurojust said ting off criminal tenants of
Wednesday that investi- Emotet from quarry they
gators took control of the have infected.
infrastructure behind the “The infected machines
botnet known as Emotet. of victims have been re-
A botnet is a network of hi- In this file photo dated Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, the Europol headquarters building in The directed towards this law
jacked computers, and this Hague, Netherlands. enforcement-controlled
one has effectively served Associated Press infrastructure,” the agency
as a primary door-opener cent years was “a game and only providing a de- States, the U.K., France, said.
for cybercriminals since changer for ransomware coding software key after Lithuania, Canada and “This is a unique and new
2014. “This is a really big gangs who otherwise rely they have paid up. Those Ukraine took part in the in- approach to effectively
deal. Emotet was one of on other access methods,” who don’t risk having data ternational operation coor- disrupt the activities of the
the largest, if not the larg- said Jake Williams, presi- exfiltrated by the hackers dinated by the two Hague- facilitators of cybercrime.”
est, botnets delivering a dent of Rendition Infosec, exposed publicly. based agencies. The operation recalled
wide variety of malware. another cybersecurity firm. Williams said via text mes- Dutch prosecutors said the one carried out by Micro-
Their botnet consisted of Emotet has allowed ran- sage that although some- malware, run out of east- soft late last year against
hundreds of thousands somware gangs to out- one will eventually fill the ern Europe by a Russian- a different botnet known
compromised hosts which source initial access, and gap “there’s no question speaking organization, was as Trickbot — which was
were used to send more focus their efforts instead that this will hurt (ransom- first discovered in 2014 and pushed out using Emotet
than 10 million spam and on a cybercrime variety ware gangs) and help de- “evolved into the go-to and used in ransomware
phishing emails a week,” that has crippled Western fenders in the short/mid solution for cybercriminals attacks. The U.S. National
said Allan Liska, an analyst government, healthcare term.” over the years,” responsible Security Agency was also
with Recorded Future. and educational networks Authorities in the Nether- for hundreds of millions of reported to have tried to
The Emotet model of re- by scrambling their data lands, Germany, the United dollars in losses beginning take down Trickbot.q

Philippines protests new China law as `verbal threat of war’

By JIM GOMEZ guard to fire on foreign Foreign Secretary Teodoro tions or individuals at sea.” exercises being staged
Associated Press vessels and destroy oth- Locsin Jr. said in a tweet The law also authorizes the by China’s People’s Lib-
MANILA, Philippines (AP) er countries’ structures that the new Chinese law coast guard to demolish eration Army in the South
— The Philippines has pro- on islands it claims, Ma- “is a verbal threat of war other countries’ structures China Sea spilled over into
tested a new Chinese law nila’s top diplomat said to any country that defies” built on reefs and islands Philippine territory.
that authorizes its coast Wednesday. it. Failure to challenge the claimed by China and to China and the Philippines,
law “is submission to it,” he seize or order foreign ves- along with Vietnam, Ma-
said. “While enacting law sels illegally entering Chi- laysia, Taiwan and Brunei,
is a sovereign prerogative, na’s territorial waters to have been locked in ter-
this one — given the area leave. ritorial rivalries in the South
involved, or for that matter The Chinese law raises the China Sea in tense de-
the open South China Sea stakes and the possibility cades-long standoffs. In-
— is a verbal threat of war of clashes with regional donesian forces also have
to any country that defies maritime rivals. had confrontations with
the law,” Locsin said. The Philippine protest is the Chinese coast guard
China’s Coast Guard Law, the latest strongly worded and fishing flotillas in what
which was passed on Fri- public criticism by Manila Indonesian officials say are
day, empowers the force of China’s increasingly as- their territorial waters near
to “take all necessary sertive actions in the dis- the South China Sea.
measures, including the puted waters, despite co- The United States has no
use of weapons, when na- zier ties nurtured by Presi- claims in the strategic wa-
tional sovereignty, sover- dent Rodrigo Duterte with terway but its naval forces
In this July 22, 2019, file photo, protesters display a balloon
with an anti-China message during a rally near the Philippine eign rights, and jurisdiction Beijing. Last July, Locsin have challenged China’s
Congress in Manila, Philippines. are being illegally infringed warned China of “the se- territorial claims over virtu-
Associated Press upon by foreign organiza- verest response” if military ally the entire sea. q