The Department of Justice said the four domains targeted at U.S. audiences — newsstand7.com, usjournal.net, usjournal.us and twtoday.net — were seized specifically under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

CISA has increasingly used its emergency-directive authority to try to keep foreign spies or criminals from burrowing into federal networks

The goal of the entire intiative is to have browsers connect to federal government websites via HTTPS by default.

The discovery exposes another gap in web browser security despite vendor pledges to block malicious code from download stores.

It’s an example of how the fight against a cybercriminal threat is often long and methodical — and heavily aided by the private sector.

Exactly how the bureau is working with tech firms remains unclear.