Microsoft is now offering a $250,000 reward to help track down the people behind the notorious Rustock botnet. The company, which helped take down the botnet several months ago, said that it already has some good information on the crew behind the network and is now looking for information to bring the investigation to a close.
Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit, which was formed to help work with law enforcement and other agencies and vendors on large operations such as botnet takedowns, has been working on finding the people behind Rustock for some time and earlier this year took out ads in Russian newspapers asking for help.
“This reward offer stems from Microsoft’s recognition that the Rustock
botnet is responsible for a number of criminal activities and serves to
underscore our commitment to tracking down those behind it. While the
primary goal for our legal and technical operation has been to stop and
disrupt the threat that Rustock has posed for everyone affected by it,
we also believe the Rustock bot-herders should be held accountable for
their actions,” Richard Boscovich, senior attorney in the Microsoft DCU, said in a blog post.
“Microsoft has already been gathering strong evidence
in our ongoing investigation and this reward aims to take that effort a
step further. We will continue to follow this case wherever it leads us
and remain committed to working with our partners around the world to
help people regain control of their Rustock-infected computers.”
The reward is open to people in any country, Microsoft said, and people with information they think is relevant to the investigation can send it to avreward@microsoft.com.
