Dutch National Police and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) disrupt a malware botnet that reportedly includes at least 17 million infected devices. Authorities say they take offline 200 servers that are used to control the botnet. According to the announcements, the effort starts after the NCSC receives a report from a security researcher. Investigators describe the affected devices as a mix of computers, mobile phones, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, routers, and other connected systems, indicating broad compromise across different device types.
The operation also involves coordination with a local provider that supported the botnet infrastructure. Bleeping Computer reports that more than 200 servers are seized as part of the disruption, aligning with Help Net Security’s figure of 200 servers taken offline. Both sources frame the action as a law-enforcement and national cyber-security response intended to stop the botnet’s command and control activity.
Authorities do not attribute the botnet to a specific operator in the provided summaries, and details of the malware’s purpose and how victims were compromised are not included in the excerpts.
