The Australian Signals Directorate says it disconnected one Amadey controller, blocking its operator from accessing the infected machines or stealing more data through that connection.
The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) says it cut one criminal’s access to 180,000 computers infected with Amadey malware worldwide, including some in Australia. Its operators entered the criminal operation’s backend—the systems used to manage it—and disconnected the controller that sent orders to those machines.
Tauri Gregory, ASD’s acting deputy director-general of intelligence, described the disconnection in an interview with ABC News published on October 27, as recounted by The Hacker News. ASD has not disclosed when the operation took place.
Amadey has been sold to criminals as a service since 2018, ESET’s analysis says. Each buyer runs a separate control panel on their own servers. Infected computers contact that buyer’s command-and-control server—a system that sends instructions—and carry out its orders. Disconnecting this link cuts off that operator’s control.
The operation targeted one such network, not Amadey as a whole. ESET identified 53 separate Amadey botnets, or networks of infected computers, that did not share infrastructure.
A separate international law-enforcement operation, Operation Endgame, targeted servers associated with Amadey and other malware between June 15 and 19. That dated action is distinct from the disclosure of ASD’s intervention, whose date remains unspecified.
Amadey mainly installs additional malware, including programs that steal information. It can also steal login details and give its operator remote access. Common routes onto computers include fake software updates, cracked software installers and other malicious programs.
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Blocking the controller’s access is not the same as removing infections or reversing earlier data theft. Microsoft’s analysis says stolen login details can remain unused for months before attackers use them. A stolen session cookie—the data that keeps a user signed in—can also let an attacker bypass multi-factor authentication, which normally requires another check beyond a password. Those routes remain relevant even after this controller loses its connection.
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