Google Is Suing The Badbox 2.0 Botnet Group

Google has filed a suit against nan operators of a what is believed to beryllium nan largest smart TV botnet successful nan world — BadBox 2.0.

The institution said successful its title that this China-based botnet had compromised much than 10 cardinal uncertified devices — including TV streaming boxes, tablets and projectors. Google said that cybercriminals pre-installed malware aliases utilized malicious apps to download malware connected hardware that was moving open-source Android software. These compromised devices were past utilized to behaviour "large-scale advertisement fraud and different integer crimes." In summation to nan lawsuit, which is an injunction against nan botnet's operators arsenic good arsenic unspecified damages, Google said it has updated Google Play Protect to automatically artifact known apps associated pinch BadBox 2.0.

The FBI is besides moving to dismantle BadBox 2.0, pinch an alert astir nan cognition issued past month. The original BadBox botnet campaign, which besides chiefly infiltrated Android operating systems, was identified successful 2023 and disrupted successful 2024.

Google has been a target for this type of cybercriminal activity before. In 2021, it disrupted Glupteba, which astatine nan clip was 1 of nan largest botnets pinch astir 1 cardinal Windows PCs impacted.

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