In another historical victory of law enforcement over identity fraud cybercriminals, Reuters
announced on Tuesday that Spanish police have arrested the minds behind
the Mariposa botnet, the largest botnet operation ever to be shut down.
During its reign, Mariposa infected more than 13 million PCs in 190
countries, spanning from personal home computers to government
agencies. The two security firms that investigated Mariposa—Canadian
firm Defense Intelligence Inc and Spain’s Panda Security S.L.—said the
botnet had infected over half of the world’s 1,000 largest companies,
including 40 major financial institutions.