The FBI says it was authorized to mass-remove “PlugX” malware from more than 4,000 compromised machines in the United States

After obtaining the necessary court orders, the researchers, together with the Cyber Division of the Paris Prosecution Office, French Gendarmerie Cyber Unit C3N, the FBI, and the DoJ, ran the campaign and successfully removed the malware from infected computers.

The FBI said today that it removed Chinese malware from 4,258 US-based computers and networks by sending commands that forced the malware to use its "self-delete" function.

Federal authorities announced Tuesday that they have erased Chinese malware from thousands of computers across the United States.

The FBI and French authorities conducted an international operation to remotely delete Chinese malware used by Beijing-linked hackers to steal data from thousands of U.S., European, and Asian computer networks,

Law enforcement turns the PlugX malware’s own self-delete mechanism against it, nuking the China-linked trojan from thousands of US machines.

According to the FBI, it worked on deleting the malware from over 4,000 Windows-based computers, further regarding that PlugX is capable of taking over a computer to steal the files and share them with the right people over in China.

The FBI has gained court approval to put an end to the PlugX malware in the U.S., which has affected over 2.5 million devices globally by infiltrating infected USB drives.The Latest Tech News, Deliver

Malicious software is just one of the ways hackers can steal data or cause damage to your electronic devices, but two federal agencies undertook major steps to combat it.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI have concluded an extensive international operation that successfully removed PlugX malware from more than 4,200 computers across the United States.