8 ms·
The Mirai Botnet Was Part of a College Student Minecraft Scheme
- techdragon 9y agoThis was one of the best things I’ve read on wired in a while. It’s a surprisingly excellent write up on the Mirai bot net and the events surrounding it. (The HN headline title is definitely more click bait than I’d like)
- majewsky 9y agoThe HN headline currently says: > The Mirai Botnet Was Part of a College Student Minecraft Scheme How is this clickbait? All I can see is a summary of what happened. When people say "clickbait", I expect something like: > Three Boys Sucked At Minecraft. You Won't Believe What Happened Next!
- techdragon 9y agoThe title has been changed since I posted, and unfortunately I didn’t think ahead to save a copy of the original HN title. The current title is much more what I would have been expecting.
- philamonster 9y agoHaven't read the article yet but Krebs was all over it as he was a(the) target. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/who-is-anna-senpai-the-mirai-worm-author/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/who-is-anna-senpai-the-m...
- syntheticcdo 9y agoWhy do these kinds of investigations only ever stop at the perpetrator of the attack? In rushing to market, these IoT companies pushed out a defective, insecure product. Such an attack would not be possible without vulnerable hosts to hijack, so why aren't the IoT hardware companies investigated or fined?
- slededit 9y agoIts not illegal to leave your door unlocked.
- majewsky 9y agoAt least in Germany, it's illegal to leave your car door unlocked. (Not sure about house doors.) The rationale is that it invites crime.
- docdeek 9y agoI didn't know that. Is it possible, then, that a person who leaves their door unlocked is punished while the person who stole and dumped the car is not?
- mlnj 9y agoAnd is that not a classic case of victim blaming?
- StudentStuff 9y agoIt is victim blaming, but some countries obviously deem that acceptable behavior, to the point of putting it into law.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- majewsky 9y agoWtf, no. The person stealing the car is of course punished as a thief. (Unless he doesn't get caught, obviously.)
- PurpleRamen 9y agoActually it's illegal to lock the housedoor, because of emergency situations. In case something happend and the people need to flee, they could be trapped in the house. Also technically it's not illegal to leave your car door unlocked, Police just handles it that way. The law demands that the car cannot be misused.
- chatmasta 9y ago> “We don’t know who is doing this, but it feels like a large nation-state. China or Russia would be my first guesses.” [Bruce Schneier when Mirai first appeared] This looks especially foolish now. Schneier is a so-called expert who has testified in front of congress. He should be more careful when engaging in rampant speculation like this. What basis did he have for such an assumption? I don’t understand why every single cyberattack is immediately blamed on Russia or China. It’s an intellectual embarrassment, and especially worse when it’s coming from experts within the community rather than politicians in congress. But I’m sure the DNC hack was the work of an advanced nation state. Probably had nothing to do with sharing passwords like runner123 over email...
- philamonster 9y agoI think a lot of the speculation was based on the initial size of the attack (620-665gbps). https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/09/krebsonsecurity-hit-with-record-ddos/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/09/krebsonsecurity-hit-with...
- tptacek 9y agoRight. The problem is the premise that it would take a state-level adversary to generate that kind of traffic, and not a single-digit number of disgruntled teenaged Minecraft players.
- sasas 9y ago> Schneier is a so-called expert who has testified in front of congress Schneier has been around for a long time, knows the industry well and has made significant contributions. Not everyone get's things right all the time including Schneier. Credibility wise he .. - has a master's degree in computer science - was awarded an honorary Ph.D from the University of Westminster in London - is chief technology officer of BT Managed Security Solutions 15 publications, 6 notable books - - Applied Cryptograph - Cryptography Engineering - Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World - Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World - Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive - Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Schneier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Schneier
- walshemj 9y ago"young American computer savants" Ah so Mum or Dad paid a doctor to diagnose them as autistic after the fact.
- NathanWilliams 9y agoWhat does autism have to do with it?
- westmeal 9y agoMaybe because the word savant was used which is oftentimes used to describe a smart person with autism.
- walshemj 9y agoQuite its common for those caught hacking whos parents have money - that they suddenly become diagnosed with autism which pisses off those with autism
- NathanWilliams 9y agoNo, savant simply means "a learned person". Perhaps you are thinking of "idiot savant", which refers to someone with a mental disability and is gifted in a particular way.
- walshemj 9y agothat's not the way Wired where using it they where using it as a synonym for autistic
- Asdfbla 9y agoIf IoT botnets become more prevalent (and it doesn't seem like IoT makers have incentives to make their devices more secure), I wonder if ISPs will just start monitoring the traffic patterns of their customers for possible DDoS activity and possibly throttle or cut off their internet connection to stop the attack at its source. Probably would even be compatible with most net neutrality regulations around the world, since it's a security issue. You could probably hide DoS traffic from a single device by making it very low volume, but if the ISPs coordinate, they still know that the device recently sent packets to a victim of a DDoS attack, making it suspicious.
- PurpleRamen 9y agoProviders in my country are already doing this. But they simply send an informal letter to notify the user that with high probability his household is part of a botnet.
- verroq 9y agohttps://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-charges-and-guilty-pleas-three-computer-crime-cases-involving https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-... FBI indictments > JIIA further participated in a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) hijacking scheme in which JIIA and co-conspirators fraudulently gained control over IP addresses that were in legitimate use by third parties. JIIA conducted these activities to consolidate and maximize the power of the Mirai botnet. [1] Uhh what? [1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1017581/download https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1017581/downl...
- dylz 9y agoAt the very least they stole IPs for the hell of it. Datawagon, Protraf, .... The cybercrime hosts stole a ton of space, even impersonating dead people and falsifying documents. Served malware, etc off them https://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/query/SBL180438 https://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/query/SBL180438 Also stole a ton for abuse/C&C/etc. https://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/query/SBL287709 https://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/query/SBL287709 (check whois names at bottom) They also hijacked 1.3.3.0/24 to announce 1.3.3.7/32 (you can guess why).
- itronitron 9y agoDDOS attacks on individual Minecraft players are definitely a thing. As a result players' infosec practices are likely a lot stronger than their peers...
- maroonparty 9y agoIsn't this already had been found out https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/who-is-anna-senpai-the-mirai-worm-author/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/who-is-anna-senpai-the-m...
- Unbeliever69 9y agoGreat read. Despite the damage they caused, there is a part of me that wishes (hopes) that their crimes are overlooked and instead put to use as white hat operatives in an elite super-secret government black program fighting terrorism and solving the world's most pressing problems; not ruining their lives with prison and all the other baggage associated with being branded criminals. Maybe I have watched too many movies!