chewdatgenie

French authorities, together with Europol, are using the PlugX malware's own capabilities to remove it from victims' computers through a "disinfection solution" that automatically removes malicious software from infected devices in France. This effort is led by the Center for the Fight Against Digital Crime (C3N) of the National Gendarmerie, with the support of the French cybersecurity company Sekoia. Sekoia managed to gain control of a crucial command and control server for a widely distributed variant of PlugX earlier this year. PlugX is a remote access trojan, frequently used by Chinese cybercriminals, which has had several variants over the years. A particularly persistent variant spread via USB flash drives, infecting nearly 2.5 million devices worldwide. Even after the operator of this botnet abandoned the operation, the malware continued to spread, remaining active on infected systems.