Microsoft takes legal action against billion-scale botnets

Microsoft, in collaboration with the Health-ISAC organization, has obtained a US court order to seize and redirect domains used by the YAM Store, CoGUI, and Iron Man services. These infrastructures were reportedly responsible for over one billion malicious messages targeting more than 75,000 organizations since January 2026.

As part of the coordinated enforcement action, more than 20,000 linked user accounts were deactivated. Alongside these legal measures, Microsoft released monthly security updates to address several vulnerabilities, including an actively exploited zero-day flaw in the Windows Shell (CVE-2026-96951).

In the financial markets, Microsoft shares rose 0.5 percent to 480.60 euros, trading slightly below its recent 52-week high. Analyst sentiment remains mixed, with Barclays raising its price target to $600 while Phillip Securities downgraded the stock from 'Moderate Buy' to 'Hold'.