* Botnets used IoT devices like webcams and routers

* Botnets targeted Department of Defense websites, among

others

* German police identified two suspected administrators

facing legal consequences

By Maria Tsvetkova

NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters) - Law enforcement agencies

in the United States, Germany and Canada have carried out an

operation to take down infrastructure used by four major botnets

that infected more than 3 million devices worldwide.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement on

Thursday the malicious networks - Aisuru, KimWolf, JackSkid and

Mossad - were used to launch distributed denial-of-service

(DDoS) attacks, with some Department of Defense websites among

the targets.

German police said on Friday law enforcement agencies had

identified two suspected administrators of the botnets who will

now face legal consequences.

"Searches were conducted at their residences in Germany and

Canada, and extensive evidence was seized," it said in a

statement. "In addition to numerous data storage devices,

cryptocurrencies worth tens of thousands of dollars were also

confiscated."

Most infected devices were part of the so-called Internet of

Things, or web-connected appliances like webcams, digital video

recorders, or Wi-Fi routers, according to the U.S. DOJ.

Operators of the botnets carried out hundreds of thousands

of DDoS attacks, targeting computers and servers around the

world, including IP addresses owned by the Department of Defense

Information Network. In some cases, they demanded payments from

their victims, according to the statement.

German police said devices could be compromised without the

knowledge of their owners, and those with no security updates or

weak passwords were especially at risk.

"Furthermore, resources of the Kimwolf botnet were rented

out as a so-called residential proxy network. This allowed third

parties to use the infected devices as an anonymization layer

for a fee, without the knowledge of the actual owner," police

said.

"Today's disruption of four powerful botnets highlights our

commitment to eliminate emerging cyber threats to the Department

of Defense and its warfighters," said Kenneth DeChellis, a

special agent in charge at the Department of

Defense Investigative Service.

The DOJ statement listed nearly two dozen major tech

companies that helped the operation, including Amazon Web

Services, Google, PayPal ( PYPL ) and Nokia, and the PowerOff team of the

European Union's law enforcement agency, Europol, whose

operation against cybercriminals focusing on DDoS attacks has

been running since 2017.