{
  "id": 4950449,
  "title": "Russian cybercrime operation being dismantled after two decades, US officials and CrowdStrike say",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/01/russian-cybercrime-operation-being-dismantled-after-two-decades-us-4950449",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-01T22:06:27.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Investing.com",
    "slug": "investing-com",
    "url": "https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/russian-cybercrime-operation-being-dismantled-after-two-decades-us-officials-and-crowdstrike-say-4884691"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Russian cybercrime operation, Sality, that has been active for two decades, is being dismantled by U.S. law enforcement and cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. The offense, which can be used for spamming, distributed denial-of-service attacks, and crypto theft, was brought down in coordination with European law enforcement and other organizations, according to the FBI and U.S. Justice Department. It was first detected in 2003 and remains one of the longest-running cybercriminal enterprises on the internet. The botnet's peer-to-peer architecture made it resilient to law enforcement action, however, CrowdStrike managed to disrupt it by flooding the network with false data, causing the bots to cut off from their creator. The operation was carried out in front of an audience at CrowdStrike's Day Zero threat intelligence summit in Las Vegas. Cybersecurity experts and officials are now keeping an eye on the botnet's creator to see if they attempt to regain control or recreate the botnet.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Channel News Asia",
        "title": "Russian cybercrime operation being dismantled after two decades, US officials and CrowdStrike say",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/01/russian-cybercrime-operation-being-dismantled-after-two-decades-us",
        "published": "2026-09-01T22:01:37.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}