A court order has granted Microsoft control over 50 websites allegedly used by a North Korean hacking group to steal information from US computers.
Federal district court Judge Liam O'Grady has ordered the companies hosting the 50 website domains to hand over controls to Microsoft after issuing a temporary restraining order prohibiting North Korean hacking group Thallium from carrying out further hacking of Microsoft and its customers.
On December 18, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against two unnamed people involved with Thallium, claiming that they used the websites to send phishing emails to break into users' accounts and gain access to their information.
The suit, which was unsealed on December 27, indicated that Thallium impersonated Microsoft or made use of its brands, such as Office 365, to gain access to the accounts.
The court order stated that representatives of Thallium are given the chance to appear on January 3 to argue against the decision becoming permanent but it's unsure whether such representatives exist.
In the order, O'Grady wrote: "There is good cause to believe that if such conduct continues, irreparable harm will occur to Microsoft, Microsoft's customers, and the public." The order can be considered a win in the company's ongoing initiative to fight cyber crime from groups it believes are backed by nation-states.
In a blog post, Tom Burt, the company's vice president of consumer security and trust, claimed that Microsoft has taken similar legal action against hacking groups operating from China, Russia and Iran.
Burt said: "We believe it's important to share significant threat activity like that we're announcing today. We think it's critical that governments and the private sector are increasingly transparent about nation-state activity so we can all continue the global dialogue about protecting the internet."
Furthermore, Burt said that he hopes Microsoft's initiatives could raise awareness of similar attacks at other companies.
