Cisco Talos first disclosed the existence of VPNFilter on May 23, 2018. The malware made headlines across the globe, as it was a sophisticated piece of malware developed by a nation state. Yet the attack was averted. The attackers command and control (C2) infrastructure was seized by the FBI, preventing the attacker from broadcasting orders to compromised devices. The attack was a wakeup call that alerted the cybersecurity community to a new kind of state-sponsored threat a vast network of compromised devices that could stow away secrets.”]
Source: https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2019/05/one-year-later-vpnfilter-catastrophe.html