Federal authorities announced Tuesday that they have erased Chinese malware from thousands of computers across the United States.

The FBI says it was authorized to mass-remove “PlugX” malware from more than 4,000 compromised machines in the United States

The FBI instructed PlugX — a malware used by state-sponsored hackers in China — to delete itself across 4,200 infected devices in the US.

The FBI said today that it removed Chinese malware from 4,258 US-based computers and networks by sending commands that forced the malware to use its "self-delete" function.

The FBI and French authorities conducted an international operation to remotely delete Chinese malware used by Beijing-linked hackers to steal data from thousands of U.S., European, and Asian computer networks,

The FBI worked with French law enforcement to squash a variant of the PlugX malware that spreads through USB drives.

More than 4,000 U.S. computers and networks have had malware files deleted by the FBI, which said it did not collect other information during the remote operations.

The FBI has gained court approval to put an end to the PlugX malware in the U.S., which has affected over 2.5 million devices globally by infiltrating infected USB drives.The Latest Tech News, Deliver

Malicious software is just one of the ways hackers can steal data or cause damage to your electronic devices, but two federal agencies undertook major steps to combat it.