In its latest move to stop global hackers in their tracks, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) has throttled the activities of a China-based hacking group that it calls Nickel. A federal court in Virginia granted the company’s request to seize websites that Nickel planned to use to attack organizations in 29 countries, including the U.S. The upshot of Microsoft’s sheriff-like effort is that Nickel’s access to victims has been cut off and that the malicious websites it was using no longer have the ability to carry out attacks. Microsoft didn’t name Nickel’s specific targets but said at the top of…