Meet John Doe

John Doe no. 21 lives or works -- or picks up his (or her) -- mail at Jiuyangxi Road 12 in Shanghai. Number 22 has some sort of office in a shopping center in Beaverton, Ore., near a Computer Moms outlet and Beaverton Ship & Pack.

Altogether, there are 27 of these John Does, according to Microsoft Corp., and they are -- or were -- in charge of a huge botnet known as Waledac. The past tense might be appropriate because Microsoft claims it has beheaded Waledac.

With a court order in hand, Microsoft has disabled 277 Internet domains that helped Waledac's brain communicate with its body -- the thousands of "zombie" PCs that the botnet commandeered to do its dirty work, including reproducing itself and sending out spam pushing dubious products and services.

Some security experts doubt that Microsoft has killed Waledac, but its approach is novel. It obtained a temporary restraining order that required VeriSign, Inc., which controls ".com" Internet names, to pull the plug on the domains that Microsoft believes were a major part of the botnet's communications infrastructure.

The restraining order expires on March 8, but that might not be a problem for Microsoft. Judge Leonie Brinkema, of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, has ordered all 27 of the John Does to attend a March 8 hearing "to show cause, if there is any," for not making the injunction permanent and taking further action against them for violating an assortment of U.S. laws. John Doe no. 21 better call his travel agent. -- TL