Google Has Unleashed Its Legal Fury on Hackers and Scammers

Google has filed at least eight lawsuits against hackers and scammers.

The tactic, which Google calls affirmative litigation, is meant to scare off would-be fraudsters and generate public awareness.

Leaders of Google ’s security and legal teams tell WIRED they believe going after people in court has paid off.

The awards are trivial to Google and its parent Alphabet , a $2 trillion company, but can be devastating for defendants.

Google 's general counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado says she wants to send a message to other companies that the corporate legal department can do more than be the team that says “no” to wild ideas.

Since then, Google has filed complaints against five similar allegedly scammy marketers, with three of them ending in settlements so far.

In 2022 , a US district judge sided with Google and ordered defendants to pay nearly $526,000 combined to cover Google ’s attorneys fees.

Defendants in Google 's other three hacking cases haven’t responded to the accusations.

Google says the case achieved the intended effect: The number of Glupteba -infected computers fell 78 percent .

Google uses the rulings as evidence to persuade businesses such as banks and cloud providers to cut off defendants.