AVALANCHE Botnet Network Dismantled in Global Cyber Operation 5l3eg

One of the world's biggest networks of hijacked computers, which is suspected of being used to attack online banking customers, has been taken down following police swoops in 10 countries, German police said on Thursday. 4x5gf

In an internationally coordinated campaign, authorities carried out the raids on Wednesday, seized servers and website domains and arrested suspected leaders of a criminal organisation, said police and prosecutors in northern .

Officials said they had seized 39 servers and several hundred thousand domains, depriving criminals of control of more than 50,000 computers in alone. These hijacked computers were used to form a "botnet" to knock out other websites.

Two people who are believed to have been the s of the botnet infrastructure known as "AVALANCHE" were arrested in Ukraine, investigators said. Another person was arrested in Berlin, officials added.

The strike came in the Deutsche Telekom with malicious software.

The attack failed but froze the routers, causing outages in homes, businesses and government offices across on Sunday and Monday, Deutsche Telekom executives said.

(Also see: Calls Grow to Make IT Equipment Makers Liable After German Attack)

Police said criminals had used the "AVALANCHE" botnet targeted in Wednesday's international raids since 2009 to send phishing and spam e-mails. More than a million e-mails were sent per week with malicious attachments or links.

When s opened the attachment or clicked on the link, their infected computers became part of the botnet.

Investigators said the suspects had operated the commandeered network and made it available to other criminal groups, who had used it to send spam and phishing mails, defraud online banking and to spread ransomware, a form of online extortion scheme.

Officials estimated worldwide damages at upward of several hundred million euros.

Authorities have identified 16 suspected leaders of the organisation from 10 different countries.

(Also see: Britain's TalkTalk Becomes Latest Victim of Software Attack)

A court in Verden, northern , has issued arrest warrants for seven people on suspicion of forming a criminal organisation, commercial computer fraud and other criminal offences.

The raids came after more than four years of intensive investigation by specialists in 41 countries.

© Thomson Reuters 2016