Software Giant Microsoft is asking a judge if it can hack into the spammer Rustock's command and control servers. Microsoft said it will make the request after the operators of the spam giant failed to show up at court last week.

Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit senior attorney, Richard Bozcovich said that his outfit had seized the botnet's hardware without informing them of its intentions and now wanted the court to allow us due discovery of the evidence gathered from the seizures. He said that this would help the legal team learn what it can about the identity of those behind Rustock.”

Rustock is inactive, but Microsoft still fears that the million odd Rustock-infected Windows machines could still be reopened. Bozcovich said with the servers under Microsoft control a 1.7 million IP addresses reached out for routine instructions from Rustock’s controllers.