Microsoft opens new Cybercrime Center to fight against Malware and Botnets

Microsoft is taking its fight against cybercrime to the next level. Redmond on Thursday announced the opening of a new Cybercrime Center from which it intends to battle some of the worst Internet threats like malware, botnets, intellectual property theft, and technology-facilitated child exploitation.

A search warrant filed in King County Superior Court earlier this year reveals that Microsoft "discovered one of their subscribers had uploaded one or more files of suspected child pornography to the Internet. Microsoft subsequently made a report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) who documented the complaint." That complaint led to a criminal investigation.

"The Microsoft Cybercrime Centre is where our experts come together with customers and partners to focus on one thing: keeping people safe online," said David Finn of the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit.

The center has more than 100 employees worldwide, fighting three areas of cybercrime: Malware and Botnets, Intellectual Property Crimes, and Child Exploitation. "Our mission is to create a clean Internet for every person on the planet," Finn told Clancy. "That means that we will follow, and we will track and we will trace and we will dismantle any criminal group that makes that mission more difficult."

Noboru Nakatani, Interpol's executive director for the Global Complex for Innovation, added: "In the fight against cybercrime the public sector significantly benefits from private sector expertise, such as provided by Microsoft."

Microsoft's work up until now has seen some of the worst botnets in history tackled to the ground. Notable disruptions include the take down of the Bimatal search engine results hijacking botnet in February, and the Citadel financial fraud botnet months later in June.

The software giant also launched PhotoDNA in 2009 in efforts to help address the illegal distribution of child abuse imagery worldwide, and as since acquired partners that have tapped into its technology.