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Ramnit botnet disruption

February 2015, Malware and botnets

Extended pass entry, last reviewed August 21, 2026

What was taken down?

Servers and domains supporting the botnet were taken under law-enforcement control and routed to a sinkhole.

See what happened

What happened to the people?

No individual outcomes are recorded against this entry.
Group accounted for: Not applicable

See people and accountability

Did it stay down?

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

See what happened afterward

A Europol-supported coalition of European national police and security-industry partners disrupted Ramnit botnet infrastructure, which Europol estimated had infected roughly 3.2 million computers.

Date
February 2015
Target
Ramnit, botnet
Activity
Malware and botnets
Operational lead
Not established
Partners
Europol[1]
Jurisdiction
Not established
Outcome
Servers and domains supporting the botnet were taken under law-enforcement control and routed to a sinkhole.
Status
Completed
Legal mechanism
Coordinated national judicial/search-and-seizure authority; exact statute per country not publicly detailed.
Group accounted for
Not applicable

No individual is named against this entry in the cited record. That is a gap in what has been published rather than a finding that nobody was involved.

Group accounted for: Not applicable

The cited record does not say how large the group was or whether everyone involved has been identified.

Europol estimated approximately 3.2 million infected computers.

See the organizations and roles behind this action

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

Numbered markers throughout this entry link to the source that supports the claim beside them.

Official sources

  1. [1]
    Ramnit botnet disruption announcement

    Europol, February 24, 2015, Source grade P2

    Establishes the Europol-coordinated Ramnit infrastructure disruption and the 3.2 million infection estimate.

    No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

Coverage note. Added from deep-research aggregation pass. Not independently re-verified source-by-source to the same standard as the original 38-incident core; source_quality capped at S2/P2 pending a dedicated verification pass.