Microsoft Settles With No-IP After Malware Takedown 83
Trailrunner7 (1100399) writes It's been a weird couple of weeks for Microsoft. On June 30 the company announced its latest malware takedown operation, which included a civil law suit against Vitalwerks, a small Nevada hosting provider, and the seizure of nearly two dozen domains the company owned. Now, 10 days later, Microsoft has not only returned all of the seized domains but also has reached a settlement with Vitalwerks that resolves the legal action. Some in the security research community criticized Microsoft harshly for what they saw as heavy handed tactics. Within a few days of the initial takedown and domain seizure Microsoft returned all of the domains to Vitalwerks, which does business as No-IP.com. On Wednesday, the software giant and the hosting provider released a joint statement saying that they had reached a settlement on the legal action. "Microsoft has reviewed the evidence provided by Vitalwerks and enters into the settlement confident that Vitalwerks was not knowingly involved with the subdomains used to support malware. Those spreading the malware abused Vitalwerks' services," the companies said in a joint statement. "Microsoft identified malware that had escaped Vitalwerks' detection. Upon notification and review of the evidence, Vitalwerks took immediate corrective action allowing Microsoft to identify victims of this malware. The parties have agreed to permanently disable Vitalwerks subdomains used to control the malware."
I see these and laugh (Score:5, Insightful)
I always find it funny to see Microsoft using legal actions to fight malware rather than just fix the problem...
Re:Short version of article (Score:5, Insightful)
Not really. They got away with it at no real cost. Chances are our "small Nevada hosting provider" was cooperating fully with Microsoft, and playing the victim card helps avoid bad press. Or it could be covering up a National Security Letter.
I don't know, the message from No-IP includes the statement: "While we are extremely pleased with the settlement terms, we are outraged by Microsoft’s tactics and that we were not able to completely and immediately restore services to the majority of our valuable customers that had been affected." This sounds an awful lot like code for "Microsoft paid us a metric crap-ton of money, but part of the agreement is that we wouldn't tell how much."
Good Job, Microsoft (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Could have been avoided (Score:2, Insightful)
More importantly, it's absolutely *insane* that companies can seize other companies' assets like this. This is something only law enforcement should be able to do.
A quick question, if I may? (Score:5, Insightful)
Who made Microsoft the fucking internet police anyway?