Inside the FBI and DOJ Takedown of Qakbot, the “Swiss Army Knife” of Malware

International authorities, led by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, have taken down Qakbot, a malware botnet linked to 40 ransomware attacks and $58 million in victim losses. The effort, called Operation Duck Hunt, involved seizing control of Qakbot’s online infrastructure and remotely removing the malware from about 700,000 infected devices worldwide. No arrests have been made in connection to the takedown and the investigation is ongoing. Cybersecurity experts caution the disruption to cybercriminal activities may be temporary.