Notes

Tech Tent: Minecraft and A Botnet Battle

Tech Tent: Minecraft and a botnet war Rory C.Jones Technology reporter @BBCRoryCJon Twitter



You can stream the latest Tech Tent episode on the BBC website



Listen to the podcast and download the most recent episode



Listen to earlier episodes on the BBC website



Every Friday, you can listen live at 14.00 GMT on the BBC World Service



My podcast's most talked-about story this week is Cyberwarfare, which is raging below the surface of a game that has a primary audience of children.



We also examine the fight against fake news in Europe and learn about how South Korean electronics giant Samsung was implicated in corruption scandal.



Minecraft and a botnet fight



The Mirai botnet hacked thousands of connected devices to launch massive denial of service attacks (DDoS) against major websites last year - and in the process sparked an alarming concern about the security of the Internet of Things.



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



His story is remarkable because it was a battle for Minecraft which is a well-known educational game, that led to the massively disruptive DDoS attacks.



It turns out that these attacks are used against very lucrative Minecraft servers, as well as the companies that offer them security protection. Robert Coelho, whose ProxyPipe assists clients in dealing with DDoS attacks was among the victims.



He tells us: "We can't have servers down for more than 10 seconds at a time." If that happens, users leave and server firms look for other security providers.



"There's plenty of malicious players in Minecraft," Coelho explains, "because a lot of servers are operated by underage users and there's a lot of money involved so attacks are quite frequent."



Brian Krebs' article also highlights the youth of many people who are involved in these online fights.
Cities


Teenagers appear to have launched some of the most devastating and damaging attacks the world has ever witnessed. I suspect that they may consider this to be a game - but with the FBI on the case , they might find that there are serious consequences.



Fake news is being hit hard at Europe



We've previously discussed fake information on social media in relation to the US election. However, with France and Germany having voted this year, it has moved into the forefront of European politics.



This week, Facebook revealed plans to fight fake news in Germany. Articles flagged by readers as suspicious will be looked at by a small independent investigative journalism and fact-checking group known as Correctiv.



"We find that populists all over Germany are using fake news to alter the mood of the people," David Schraven from Correctiv informs me. While he acknowledges the difficulties facing his organization, he insists that it is essential for democracy. "It is very important to make a well-informed decision about the election and to be as informed as you can about truth in society.



The European Commission's vice president Andrus Ansip, who is responsible for the Digital Single Market, admits there's an issue. But he says it's up the social media platforms, not governments to tackle the issue. "Fake news is bad, but Ministry of Truth is worse" said our reporter Joe Miller in Davos at the World Economic Forum.



He believes that when people don't trust what they read on platforms like Facebook or Twitter, they will move to other platforms. The issue will be self-correcting. This could be a positive perspective of the importance social media users put on accurate news.



Samsung's woes



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



Now it has been implicated in the corruption scandal that afflicted the South Korean President Park Geun Hye.



Five Samsung executives, including the boss JY Lee has been questioned over allegations that bribes were paid to get support for a merger.



Despite these issues, Samsung appears to be capable of operating as usual, with the Korean public not being concerned about its actions. Steve Evans, our man in Seoul, is on the program to explain how important Samsung is to South Korea's economy. Samsung's revenue is 17 percent of the country's GDP, and as well as mobile phones, this massive industrial conglomerate is involved in everything from funerals to hospitals. Koreans have become familiar with Samsung from the beginning to the grave.


My Website: https://www.occities.org/