The US Justice Department and the FBI teamed up with each other and then with an international consortium of partners to remove a nasty piece of malware from over 4,000 computers in the United States. What makes it especially interesting is that they essentially told the malware to delete itself — and it did.
China and the United States have been in a Cold War for years now, with both sides hacking each other’s systems and implanting malware along the way. It’s all quite stupid and everyone should grow up. But until that impossibility occurs, the United States is going to have to do everything it can to uproot whatever malicious software Chinese hackers put into our systems.
In this case, that malware was called PlugX and used by a Chinese hacking group called Mustang Panda. One thing science fiction got right is that in the future the names for things would all be way stupider.
PlugX, believed to have been around since at least 2008, is suspected to have infected around 2.5 million devices in 2024.
By sending commands to a compromised server, the FBI essentially told the malware to delete itself from infected devices. All told, 4,285 devices in the US that were infected with PlugX are now cured, along with an untold number of PCs and other devices around the world after the FBI provided step-by-step instructions for eliminating PlugX to agency partners.
The international operation was led by French law enforcement and a French-based private cybersecurity firm called Sekoia.io.
Of course, you saw that number of 2.5 million above. A little over 4,000 devices were wiped clean in an instant in the United States, plus who knows how many more overseas, but it probably doesn’t even come close to the total number of devices infected. The one I’m writing this on could be infected, just as the one you’re reading this on. Remain vigilant, citizen.
The post The FBI Hacked US Computers to Make Malware Delete Itself appeared first on VICE.
