Tech Tent: Minecraft and A Botnet Battle

· 3 min read
Tech Tent: Minecraft and A Botnet Battle


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



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



We also look at Europe's fight against fake news and learn about how South Korean electronics giant Samsung was implicated in corruption scandal.



Minecraft and a botnet fight



The Mirai botnet took over thousands of connected devices to launch huge denial of service attacks (DDoS) against major websites last year . It also caused massive concern over the security of the Internet of Things.



Now , one of the victims of the attacks, the 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 a brilliant piece of investigative journalism.



His story is remarkable because it was a battle for Minecraft, a popular educational game, that resulted in the massively disruptive DDoS attacks.



It turns out that such attacks are being used against lucrative Minecraft servers, as well as those who provide security protection. One of those who were targeted was Robert Coelho, whose firm ProxyPipe helps clients deal with DDoS attacks.



He says: "We can't have servers down for more than 10 seconds at a stretch." When that happens, players leave and server firms look for other security providers.



"There's many bad players in Minecraft," Coelho explains, "because a lot of servers are run by underage users and there's a lot money involved, so attacks are very frequent."



Brian Krebs' article also exposes the young participants in these online fights.



It appears that some of biggest and most damaging attacks that the world has witnessed were launched by people still in their teens. They might think it's an innocent game but with the FBI investigating the case, they might find serious consequences.



Fake news is being attacked by Europe



We have previously covered fake information on social media with regards to the US election. However now, with France and Germany having voted this year the issue has been moved up the European agenda.



This week, Facebook announced plans to help combat fake news in Germany. Correctiv, a small independent journalistic and fact-checking organization, will examine any articles identified as 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" He admits that his company faces a daunting task, but says it's vital for democracy: "It's very important to make a sound decision during an election, to know the most accurate information about the truth in the society."



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



He thinks that if people don't trust the information they receive from platforms such as Facebook or Twitter they will switch to other platforms and the issue will be self-correcting. This could be a positive sign of the importance social media users place upon accurate news.



Samsung's woes



The mobile phone giant Samsung has had a rough time over the past few months. When some of its Galaxy Note 7 phones caught fire, it was forced to remove the phone. (We will learn more about it when it unveils the results of its investigation into the issue on Monday).



The company has now been caught up in the corruption scandal that involved the South Korean President Park Geun Hye.



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



Despite these challenges, Samsung appears to be capable of operating as usual, with the Korean public not being concerned about its actions. Our correspondent in Seoul, Steve Evans, is on the programme to explain how important Samsung is to the economy of South Korea. Its revenues make 17 percent of South Korea's GDP. This industrial conglomerate also makes mobile phones and is involved in everything, from hospitals to funerals. Koreans are actually interacting with Samsung from the beginning to the grave.