A multinational task-force comprising of European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT), the FBI and led by Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit was recently set up to target the Beebone (AAEH) botnet, a downloader virus that cripples a computers defenses by downloading various malwares on a PC.Private players Intel Security, Kaspersky and Shadowserver were also present to consult on destroying the polymorphic downloader that according to sources, has affected 12000 computers till date.The operation 'sinkholed' the botnet by recognizing the domain names and addresses of the affected parties and then rerouting traffic.Emergency teams around the world have been put into motion to get into touch with the victims of the botnet. The number of affected parties is less in this case, but the botnet has been deemed to be very sophisticated.The operation was successfully carried out after which Europol’s Deputy Director of Operations, Wil van Gemert, said "This successful operation shows the importance of international law enforcement working together with private industry to fight the global threat of cybercrime.""We will continue our efforts to take down botnets and disrupt the core infrastructures used by cybercriminals to carry out a variety of crimes. Together with the EU Member States and partners around the globe, our aim is to protect people worldwide against these criminal activities."