Notes

Tech Tent: Minecraft and A Botnet Battle

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



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The main story on my podcast this week is about cyberwarfare raging beneath the surface of a game whose main gamers are children.



We also look at Europe's fight against fake news and hear how South Korean electronics giant Samsung was tainted in an investigation into corruption.



Minecraft and a botnet fight



The Mirai botnet hijacked thousands of connected devices to launch huge DDoS attacks (DDoS) against major websites last year . It also in the process sparked massive concern over the security of the Internet of Things.



One of the victims of the attacks, the security researcher Brian Krebs, has published an extensive investigation into the nature of Mirai and the people behind it. This is an extraordinary piece of investigative journalism, and took him a long time to complete.



The most fascinating aspect of his story is that it was a battle over the popular educational game Minecraft that led to the hugely disruptive DDoS attacks.



It turns out that these attacks are being used against lucrative Minecraft servers and the companies that offer them security protection. One of the people who were targeted was Robert Coelho, whose firm ProxyPipe assists clients in dealing with DDoS attacks.



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



Coelho says that there are many bad actors in Minecraft. "Because the majority of servers are run by minors and there is a lot of money involved, hacking is extremely common."



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



Teenagers appear to have carried out some of the most devastating and damaging attacks the world has witnessed. They might think it's an innocent game, but with the FBI investigating the case, they might find serious consequences.



Fake news is getting attacked at Europe



We have previously reported on fake information on social media in relation to the US election. However this year, with France and Germany voting this year the issue has been moved to the top of the European agenda.



Facebook announced plans to fight fake news in Germany this week. Correctiv is a small independent journalistic and fact-checking organisation, will examine any articles that are deemed to be suspect by readers.



Correctiv's David Schraven tells me that "we find that populists across Germany are employing fake news to change the mood" He admits that his organisation faces a daunting task, but says it's vital for democracy: "It's very important to make the right decision in an election, and to know as much as you can about the truth about society."



The vice president of the European Commission, Andrus Ansip, who's in charge of the Digital Single Market, admits there's an issue. However, he believes it's up to social media platforms, not governments to tackle the issue. He also said that fake news is bad, but the Ministry of Truth is worse. This was his remark to Joe Miller at the World Economic Forum in Davos.



He believes that when people don't trust the information they get from platforms like Facebook or Twitter, they will move to another platform. The problem will then become self-correcting. This could be a positive sign of the importance social media users place upon accurate news.



Samsung's problems



Samsung, the mobile phone manufacturer has had a tough few months. After some of its Galaxy Note 7 phones caught fire, the company had to take out the phone. (We'll hear more about it Monday when it will release the results of its investigation into the issue.



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



JY Lee JY Lee, the Samsung boss, was investigated by investigators regarding allegations of bribery to obtain support for the merger.



Despite these crises the company seems to be capable of operating as usual, with the Korean public not being too concerned about its conduct. Our correspondent in Seoul, Steve Evans, is on the programme to explain how important Samsung is to the economics of South Korea. poster kingdom The company's revenues make up 17% of the country's GDP and as well as mobile phones, this huge industrial conglomerate is involved in everything from funerals to hospitals. Koreans really do encounter Samsung from the time they are born to the grave.


Here's my website: https://posterkingdom.com/