Notes

Tech Tent: Minecraft and A Botnet Battle

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



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



We also examine Europe's battle with fake news, and hear how South Korean electronics giant Samsung has been tainted by a corruption scandal in the government.



Minecraft and a botnet battle



The Mirai botnet hacked thousands of connected devices to launch massive denial of service attacks (DDoS) against major websites in the last year. it sparked massive concern over the security of the Internet of Things.
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Now , one of the victims of the attacks, security researcher Brian Krebs, has published a major investigation into the background of Mirai and the people behind it. It took him several months and is an outstanding piece of investigative journalism.



The most remarkable aspect of his story is that it was a war over the game of education that is so popular Minecraft that led to the extremely disruptive DDoS attacks.



It turns out that these attacks are targeted at lucrative Minecraft servers as well as the companies that provide them with security protection. One of the people who were targeted was Robert Coelho, whose firm ProxyPipe helps clients combat DDoS attacks.



He added, "We can't have servers down more than 10 seconds simultaneously." If this happens, users will go elsewhere while the servers will search for other security companies.



Coelho claims that there are many bad actors in Minecraft. "Because a lot servers are run by minors and there is a lot money involved, it's very common."



Another thing that stands out about Brian Krebs' article is the young age of a lot of the people involved in these online battles.



It seems some of the biggest and most damaging attacks that have been witnessed around the globe have been carried out by people who are still in their teens. I suspect that they may think that this is just a game - but with the FBI on the case they may find there are serious consequences.



Europe takes a swipe at fake news



We've discussed the issue of fake news on social media as it was related to US elections, but with Germany and France having voted this year, it has been a focal point in Europe.



Facebook announced plans to fight fake news in Germany this week. Correctiv, a small independent journalistic and fact-checking organization, will examine any articles flagged as questionable by readers.



"We see that populists across Germany are using fake news to alter the mood of the populace," David Schraven from Correctiv informs me. He admits that his company faces a huge task but he believes it is essential for democracy: "It's very important to make the right decision in an election, to be aware as much as you can about the truth of the society."



The vice-president of the European Commission Andrus Ansip who is responsible for the Digital Single Market, admits there's an issue. He said it's up to social media platforms to deal with the problem, not governments. He also said that fake news is bad however, the Ministry of Truth is worse. This was his message to Joe Miller at the World Economic Forum in Davos.



He thinks that if people don't trust the information they receive from platforms like Facebook or Twitter they will move to other platforms which means that the issue will self-correct. This could be a positive view of the importance social media users place on reliable news.



Samsung's woes



Samsung, the company that makes mobile phones has had a tough few months. When some of its Galaxy Note 7 phones caught fire, the company had to pull out the phone. (We'll learn more about this Monday when it will release the results of its investigation into this problem.



It is now involved in the corruption scandal that involved South Korean President Park Geun Hye.



Five Samsung executives, including the boss JY Lee has been questioned over allegations of bribes being paid to gain support for a merger.



Despite these crises Samsung seems to sail on - with the Korean public not greatly disturbed about its conduct. Steve Evans, our man in Seoul is on the show to talk about how important Samsung is to the South Korean economy. Samsung's revenue is 17% of the country's GDP, and in addition to mobile phones this vast industrial company is involved in everything from funerals to hospitals. Koreans really do encounter Samsung from the beginning to the grave.


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