German authorities have shut down two of the world's largest "botnets" as part of a joint three-nation operation involving the United States and Canada. These networks hijacked millions of compromised everyday devices to participate in large-scale cyberattacks, posing a significant threat to global IT infrastructure.

The Central Office for Combating Cybercrime in North Rhine-Westphalia (ZAC NRW) and Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) announced that they disabled technical infrastructure belonging to the "Aisuru" and "Kimwolf" botnets, which were scattered worldwide. Officials stated that due to their size and associated cyberattack capacity, the networks represented a major risk to online services and websites.

Investigators identified two suspected administrators, conducting searches in Germany and Canada, and seized extensive evidence including data storage devices and cryptocurrencies worth tens of thousands of dollars. The "Aisuru" botnet allegedly relied on compromised IoT devices like routers and webcams, while "Kimwolf" primarily used infected Android TV boxes. "Kimwolf" was also rented out to hackers seeking to mask traffic as originating from ordinary households.

Experts warn that devices with weak passwords, outdated software, or security flaws are particularly vulnerable to such infections. These attacks, known as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), involve thousands or millions of compromised devices simultaneously flooding a target website or server, overwhelming it and forcing it offline.

Source: www.dw.com