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Wired is misusing that quote, since it does not pertain to Mirai specifically, but to cyberwarfare in general. Here's the source titled "Someone Is Learning Ho

Wired is misusing that quote, since it does not pertain to Mirai specifically, but to cyberwarfare in general. Here's the source titled "Someone Is Learning How to Take Down the Internet", dated September 2016: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/09/someone_is_lear.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/09/someone_is_le... The source paragraph does not mention Mirai at all (nor does the article): > Over the past year or two, someone has been probing the defenses of the companies that run critical pieces of the Internet. These probes take the form of precisely calibrated attacks designed to determine exactly how well these companies can defend themselves, and what would be required to take them down. We don't know who is doing this, but it feels like a large nation state. China or Russia would be my first guesses. You should actually read the whole article to get a sense of where he is coming from.

fps_doug 9y ago
Yes, but still. I read the article when it was first published and felt it was the usual "evil communism" bs (which I honestly wouldn't have expected from Mr. Schneider), and this time around we actually got a definite answer proving these kind of claims wrong. Nowadays every time some news pop up revolving around cyber attacks more sooner than later someone points at China or Russia, with some very vague evidence at best. "Oh, we found a Russian text string embedded in the binary, it MUST have been written by the Russian government."
- lbill 9y ago
  I think we are taking this the wrong way. The situation is "we more or less blamed Mirai on a State sponsored actor", and we focus our attention on "hey, you were wrong! How dare you suspect foreign governments? That's kind of racist!". I see it as a minor concern, the major one being "Mirai is the definitive proof that your don't need the means and resources of a big hacking team financed by a government to cripple the internet. 3 kids who want to cheat on minecraft can do it". Sure, we already kinda knew that, but this proof is quite scary.
tptacek 9y ago
I read the original at the time and again yesterday, along with Brian Krebs' epic article, and it seems pretty clear that he's talking about the same phenomenon Brian Krebs is talking about.

fps_doug 9y ago

Yes, but still. I read the article when it was first published and felt it was the usual "evil communism" bs (which I honestly wouldn't have expected from Mr. Schneider), and this time around we actually got a definite answer proving these kind of claims wrong. Nowadays every time some news pop up revolving around cyber attacks more sooner than later someone points at China or Russia, with some very vague evidence at best. "Oh, we found a Russian text string embedded in the binary, it MUST have been written by the Russian government."

lbill 9y ago
I think we are taking this the wrong way. The situation is "we more or less blamed Mirai on a State sponsored actor", and we focus our attention on "hey, you were wrong! How dare you suspect foreign governments? That's kind of racist!". I see it as a minor concern, the major one being "Mirai is the definitive proof that your don't need the means and resources of a big hacking team financed by a government to cripple the internet. 3 kids who want to cheat on minecraft can do it". Sure, we already kinda knew that, but this proof is quite scary.

tptacek 9y ago

I read the original at the time and again yesterday, along with Brian Krebs' epic article, and it seems pretty clear that he's talking about the same phenomenon Brian Krebs is talking about.