Good news in the area of identity theft: Tech giant Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it had successfully halted over one thousand botnets negatively affecting consumers.

In addition to identity theft, the botnets were said to steal peoples’ online banking information.

To conduct the operation, the tech giant worked with FBI officials along with other organizations including the Electronic Payments Association and the American Bankers Association.

Microsoft began carrying out the investigation early last year. The botnets themselves relied on Citadel malware.

“The harm done by Citadel shows the threat that botnets, malicious software, and piracy pose to individuals and businesses around the world,” stated Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith via a press release.

He continued, “Today’s coordinated action between the private sector and law enforcement demonstrates the power of combined legal and technical expertise and we’re going to continue to work together to help put these cybercriminals out of business.”

The news follows Microsoft’s filing of a civil suit against the botnets’ operators which allowed the company to “cut off communication between 1,462 Citadel botnets and the millions of infected computers under their control” via a raid on data centers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit has conducted similar operations in the past. In March of last year, the company worked with authorities to seize servers responsible for the infamous Zeus botnet.