For the last several years, FBI agents debated turning the tables on hackers by remotely accessing breached computer networks and booting out the attackers caught in mid-hack.
They got their chance earlier this year after state-backed Chinese hackers compromised thousands of private Microsoft Exchange email servers. In response, an FBI special agent petitioned a Houston federal judge on April 9 for authorization to remotely access hundreds of hacking victims’ computer networks and block the attackers’ digital points of entry.
Put more simply, the FBI out-hacked the hackers.
The FBI operation was part of a more aggressive approach toward hackers that ...