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Tech Tent: Minecraft and A Botnet Battle

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


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


We also examine 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 seized control of thousands of connected devices to launch massive denial of service (DDoS) attacks on major websites in the last year. This led to panic over the security of the Internet of Things.


One of the victims of the attacks, the security researcher Brian Krebs, has published an extensive report on the background of Mirai and the people who are behind it. It took him several months to complete and is a fantastic piece of investigative journalism.


The most remarkable aspect of his story is that it was a war over the most popular game for education Minecraft that resulted in the hugely disruptive DDoS attacks.


It turns out that such attacks are being used against lucrative Minecraft servers as well as the companies that offer them security protection. Robert Coelho, whose ProxyPipe helps clients deal with DDoS attacks was one of the victims.


He added, "We can't have servers down more than 10 seconds simultaneously." When that happens, players leave and servers look for alternative security companies.


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


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


Teenagers seem to have launched some of the most devastating and destructive attacks the world has ever witnessed. They may think this is an innocent game, but with the FBI investigating the matter, they could find serious consequences.


Europe is smacking back at fake news


We've previously discussed the issue of fake news on social media, particularly as it related to the US elections However, with Germany and France voting this year, it has become a topic of discussion in Europe.


This week Facebook announced plans to help battle fake stories in Germany. Articles flagged by readers as suspicious will be looked at by a small independent investigative journalism and fact-checking organization known as Correctiv.


Correctiv's David Schraven tells me that "we see that populists across Germany are using fake news in order to influence the mood" While he acknowledges the difficulties that confront his organization, he believes that it is crucial to the functioning of democracy. "It is vital to make a good election choice and to be as informed as you can about the truth about the world of.


Andrus Ansip (Vice President of the European Commission), is in charge for the Digital Single Market. He acknowledges that there is a problem. But he says it's the responsibility of 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 believes that when people don't trust the information they get from platforms such as Facebook or Twitter they will go to other platforms. The issue will be self-correcting. This could be a positive view of the importance social media users place on reliable news.


Samsung's troubles


The mobile phone giant Samsung has had a rough time in the past few months. servers The company first had to rescind its Galaxy Note 7 phone after some of them caught fire. (We will hear more about this when it unveils the results of its investigation into the problem 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 were questioned by the company's board of directors about allegations that bribes were allegedly paid to get support for the merger.


Despite these issues, Samsung appears to be capable of operating like normal, with the Korean public not too concerned about its conduct. Steve Evans, our man in Seoul, will be on the show to discuss how crucial Samsung is to the economy of South Korea. The company's revenue makes up 17 percent of South Korea's GDP. Samsung is a major industrial conglomerate that makes mobile phones and is involved in all sorts of things, from hospitals to funerals. Koreans have come to know Samsung from the cradle until the end of time.