TL;DR

what: The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) got into a criminal's Amadey malware backend and disconnected its controller from 180,000 infected computers worldwide, including some in Australia.

impact: That operator can no longer steal from or control those machines, but credentials and session cookies taken before the takedown can still be used, and ESET has identified 53 separate Amadey botnets.

fix: There is no vendor patch: the mitigation is ASD's takedown of this controller, plus earlier server disruption by Operation Endgame between June 15 and 19, and any data taken before then still needs to be treated as exposed.

who: Organizations whose users ran fake software updates, cracked installers, or other malware loaders, and any business whose staff credentials or session cookies may have passed through Amadey or StealC.

An Amadey operator lost access to 180,000 infected computers around the world, and Australia's Signals Directorate (ASD) is the reason.…