Notes

Minecraft Link To Net's Biggest Botnet

Minecraft link to the world's largest botnet



20 January 2017



According to those who looked into it, the malware that launched the biggest cyber-attack on the internet in the history of the internet had links to Minecraft servers.



Brian Krebs, security blogger has spent months researching the attack that knocked his blog offline.



He claims that the origins of the Mirai botnet can be traced back to rivalries in the Minecraft community.



His claims are backed up by an expert in security who has provided net security for Minecraft servers.



Robert Coelho (Vice President of Security Firm ProxyPipe) told the BBC that his suspicions about the Mirai code were relayed to the FBI who is "actively investigating" them.



The botnet Mirai consisted of more than 500,000 web-connected devices such as webcams and routers.



The attacks it unleashed - so-called denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that hit web pages with such a large amount of data they collapsed they were the largest web had ever seen.



Reddit, Spotify, and Twitter were among the victims.



"Hundreds of hours"



Shortly after the attacks, the individual claiming responsibility - using the codename Anna Senpai - published the source code online, opening the way for copies of the attacks.



Later the malware was modified and the malware was used to attack UK internet service providers TalkTalk or the Post Office.



Krebs spent "hundreds of hours" investigating the Mirai botnet attack in September of 2016.



"If you've ever wondered why it appears that so few internet criminals are prosecuted I can assure you that the sheer amount of persistence and investigative resources required to piece together who's responsible for what (and why) in the online era is tremendous," he wrote.



His research led him to Minecraft, a computer program now owned by Microsoft that lets users build things using cubic blocks.



It is enjoyed by many, and especially children and is played by more than one million people at any given time.



According to Mr Krebs, a large successful Minecraft web server with more than 1,000 users logging on each day can earn up to $50,000 (PS40,600) per month, mainly from gamers renting space to create their own Minecraft worlds.



"The first clues to Anna Senpai's identity were not apparent until I realized that Mirai was the newest version of an IoT [internet of thingsbotnet family that has been in development and in widespread use for more than three years," he writes.



The code in these earlier versions was often used to knock over web servers that host Minecraft the game, according to him.



ProxyPipe - owned by Mr Coelho has a large number of Minecraft servers as clients and in mid-2015, the company was attacked by a massive attack that was launched by a botnet made up of IoT devices such as web cameras.



Mr. 1pg.org Coelho told the BBC that he had suspicions regarding the person responsible for the attack: "Minecraft is a tight knit community. We know who is talking to whom."



He claimed that the attack was perpetrated by a rival security firm that also offered DDoS protection for Minecraft clients.



He claimed that the founder of the security firm had previously run a Minecraft web server and was among his clients.



He claims that the Mirai author - Anna Senpai - contacted him via Skype at the end of September, partially to explain that the attack on his firm was "not personal" but also to brag that he was paid by the owners of a huge Minecraft server to launch an attack against a rival server.



What is an DDoS attack and how can it be stopped?



7 March 2016



Internet attack using "Smart" devices



22 October 2016


My Website: https://1pg.org/