VERY IMPORTANT

Microsoft has used a court order to wrest control of 99 websites from suspected Iranian hackers that were using them to conduct cyberattacks, court documents unsealed Wednesday show. The tech giant last week took down websites that were “core to [the] operations” of an Iranian hacking group known as APT35 or Phosphorus, Tom Burt, a Microsoft vice president, wrote in a blog post. APT35, also known as Charming Kitten, used spoofed websites of well-known companies, including Microsoft and Yahoo, to conduct their malicious activity, he said. But the court order will force the group to recreate some of that infrastructure.