PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Justice Department can continue to intercept information from 350,000 computers worldwide that are known to be infected with a data-stealing virus being spread by an alleged Russian computer hacker and his conspirators, a federal judge said.

Justice Department attorneys told U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab the affected computers will remain linked to a government-provided substitute Internet server until the malicious software can be removed. The substitute server lets the government track the Internet addresses of the infected computers and pass them on to Internet service providers or government agencies in countries, so that computer-owners can be alerted to infections.