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Tech Tent: Minecraft and A Botnet Battle

Tech Tent: Minecraft and a botnet battle with Rory Cellan-Jones Technology reporter @BBCRoryCJon Twitter



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The main story on my podcast this week is about the cyberwarfare going on beneath the surface of a game whose primary target audience is children.



We also examine Europe's battle against fake news, and we hear how South Korean electronics giant Samsung is soiled by a corruption scandal involving the government.



A botnet battle and Minecraft



The Mirai botnet seized control of thousands of connected devices to launch massive denial of service (DDoS), attacks against major websites in the last year. This led to panic over the security of the Internet of Things.



One of the victims of the attacks, the security researcher Brian Krebs, has published an extensive report on the origins of Mirai and the people behind it. This was a remarkable piece of investigative journalism and took him several months to complete.



The most fascinating aspect of his story is that it was a fight over the popular educational game Minecraft that resulted in the hugely disruptive DDoS attacks.



It turns out that these attacks are used against very lucrative Minecraft servers, as well as those who provide security protection. Robert Coelho, whose ProxyPipe helps clients deal with DDoS attacks was one of the victims.



He added, "We can't have servers down for more than 10 minutes at once." If that happens, the players will go elsewhere while the server firms will look for other security providers.



"There's plenty of malicious actors in Minecraft," Coelho explains, "because a lot of servers are run by minors and there's lots of money involved so attacks are quite frequent."



Brian Krebs' article also exposes the young people who are involved in these online fights.



Teenagers appear to have launched some of the most devastating and damaging attacks the world has ever seen. I suspect that they may consider this to be an exercise - but with the FBI investigating the matter, they could face serious consequences.



Fake news is being hit back at Europe



We've previously discussed the issue of fake news on social media, particularly as it related to the US elections however, with Germany and France voting this year, the issue has been a focal point in Europe.
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This week, Facebook unveiled plans to help combat fake news in Germany. Correctiv, an independent journalistic and fact-checking organization, will examine any articles that are deemed to be suspect by readers.



Correctiv's David Schraven tells me that "we are aware that populists across Germany are employing fake news to change the mood" Although he acknowledges the challenges that confront his organization, he insists that it is essential to the functioning of democracy. "It is vital to make a well-informed election decision and be as informed as you can about truth in society.



Andrus Ansip (Vice President of the European Commission), is responsible for the Digital Single Market. He acknowledges that there is a problem. However, he believes it's up to social media platforms, not the governments to tackle the issue. He also said that fake news is harmful, but the Ministry of Truth is worse. This was his message to Joe Miller at the World Economic Forum in Davos.



He believes that when people don't trust what they see on platforms like Facebook or Twitter, they will move elsewhere. The issue will be self-correcting. That could be an optimistic perception of the importance that social media users put on accurate news.



Samsung's woes



The giant of mobile phones Samsung has had a turbulent time over the last few months. The company first had to rescind its Galaxy Note 7 phone after several of them caught fire. (We'll hear more about it Monday when it will release the results of its investigation into the issue.



Now it has been caught up in the corruption scandal that involved the South Korean President Park Geun Hye.



JY Lee JY Lee, the Samsung director, was interviewed by investigators over allegations of bribery in order to gain support for an acquisition.



Despite these crises Samsung seems to be thriving and the Korean public not greatly disturbed about its conduct. Our man in Seoul, Steve Evans, is on the show to tell us just how crucial Samsung is to the economics of South Korea. Samsung's revenue is 17% of the country's GDP, and along with mobile phones, this huge industrial conglomerate is involved in everything from hospitals to funerals. Koreans have been familiar with Samsung from the time of its birth until the grave.


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