Google Sues Operators of 10-Million-Device Badbox 2.0 Botnet

Google on Thursday announced filing a lawsuit against the operators of the Badbox 2.0 botnet, which has ensnared more than 10 million devices running Android open source software.

These devices lack Google’s security protections, and the perpetrators pre-installed the Badbox 2.0 malware on them, to create a backdoor and abuse them for large-scale fraud and other illicit schemes.

While updates to Google Play Protect kept the malware away from devices running Google services and automatically blocked associated applications, the fresh lawsuit is meant to help the internet giant dismantle the criminal operation behind the botnet.

Badbox 2.0 “is already the largest known botnet of internet-connected TV devices, and it grows each day. It has harmed millions of victims in the United States and around the world and threatens many more,” Google notes in its complaint, a copy of which was shared with SecurityWeek.

The internet giant ...