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This is truly a remarkable story of theft on an almost unimaginable scale.
YunHe Wang, a 35-year-old Chinese national, created a “botnet” called “911 S5” from about 150 servers worldwide, including some in the U.S., according to the indictment. CNBC reports that from 2014 to 2022, “The botnet hacked into over 19 million IP addresses in nearly 200 countries, the DOJ announcement said. About 614,000 IP addresses were in the U.S., according to the indictment.”
FBIDirectorChristopherWraysaiditis“likelytheworld’slargestbotnetever.”
CNBCdescribesa“botnet”as“akindofmalwarethatconnectsanetworkofhackeddevices,whichcriminalscanthenuseremotelytolaunchcyberattacks.”TheFBIhassuppliedalinktoawebsitethatwillhelpindividualsidentifyifthey’vebeentargetedandhowtoclearthemalwareiftheyare.
“Theconductallegedherereadslikeit’srippedfromascreenplay,”saidAssistantSecretaryforExportEnforcementMatthewS.AxelrodoftheCommerceDepartment.
“Whattheydon’tshowinthemoviesthoughisthepainstakingworkittakesbydomest