Botnet of more than 17 million devices dismantled
Authorities in the Netherlands said they dismantled a botnet that comprised more than 17 million devices and were managed by 200 servers in a joint operation by the police and the National Cyber Security Center.
The action, [announced Thursday][1], came about after a security researcher reported the sprawling network to authorities. The host infrastructure was located in the Netherlands.
## Used for criminal purposes
“The police then seized several botnet servers from a hosting provider for investigation,” the NCSC said. “The botnet was taken offline by the provider because it was used for criminal purposes.”
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[1]: https://www.ncsc.nl/nieuws/gezamenlijke-actie-politie-en-ncsc-legt-groot-botnetwerk-plat
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/05/botnet-of-more-than-17-million-devices-dismantled/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/05/botnet-of-more-than-17-million-devices-dismantled/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/05/botnet-of-more-than-17-million-devices-dismantled/