Computerworld posted a story that Microsoft has uncovered a vulnerability in the PC supply chain that allows hackers to pre-install malware-infected copies of Windows onto new machines
As a result, the company has received approval from a federal court to strangle a botnet it uncovered during the investigation, which it conducted in China.Microsoft applies 'surgical sinkhole' to strangle botnet installed on new PCs
The company announced on Thursday that it was diverting traffic from the 3322.org domain to its own DNS (domain name system) servers to selectively block communications from PCs infected with the "Nitol" botnet to the hackers' command-and-control (C&C) machines.
It's also blocking access to approximately 70,000 malware-plagued subdomains of 3322.org, a Chinese web hosting firm. Other subdomains of 3322.org are resolving normally for users.
