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Google has won a crucial court battle against a group that operated a network of bots to influence systems of the technology company.
The lawsuit, which might have important consequences for future cybercrime cases, was against Glupteba, a Russian organisation that infiltrated millions of Windows machines via botnet exploits.
The Glupteba system stole user credentials and cookies, mined bitcoins on compromised servers and installed proxy components that targeted Windows computers and IoT devices.
Primarily, the malware was spread through questionable links to download pirated software.
The court ruled in favor of Google, despite the fact that such cases are notoriously difficult to litigate due to the fact that the perpetrators reside in foreign countries, outside the authority of US law.
“The court moved to grant Google’s motion for sanctions, while the court also went further, and issued monetary sanctions against both the Russian-based defendants and their US-based lawyer – requiring the criminal actors behind Glupteba to pay Google’s legal fees,” the decision said.
The identification of the persons and shell corporations participating in the Glupteba process, which specifically implicated these parties in the crime, was a crucial element in this instance.
This paved the way for direct lawsuit, and the further action to hold the group’s U.S.-based attorney accountable adds even more weight to the eventual verdict.
Read also: Activists call for Twitter advertisers to withdraw ads (commsroom.co)
Source: Social Media Today
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
