Tech Tent: Minecraft and A Botnet Battle

Tech Tent: Minecraft and a botnet battle Rory Cellan-Jones Technology reporter @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 the fight against fake news in Europe and learn how South Korean electronics giant Samsung was tainted in corruption scandal.

Minecraft and a botnet fight

The Mirai botnet seized control of thousands of connected devices to launch massive denial of service (DDoS), attacks against major websites last year. This led to panic over the security of the Internet of Things.

Now one of the victims of those attacks, the security researcher Brian Krebs, has published an extensive investigation into the nature of Mirai and the people who are behind it. This took him many months to complete and is a fantastic piece of investigative journalism.

The story is fascinating because it was a fight for Minecraft an educational game, which caused the massively disruptive DDoS attacks.

These attacks are used against highly lucrative Minecraft servers and businesses that offer security protection. Robert Coelho, whose ProxyPipe helps clients to deal with DDoS attacks, was one of the victims.

He stated, "We can't have servers down for more than 10 seconds simultaneously." If this happens, users will leave the site, and servers will search for other security providers.

"There's many bad actors in Minecraft," Coelho explains, "because a lot of servers are operated by people who are underage and there's a lot money involved, which means that attacks are very frequent."

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

Teenagers appear to have carried out some of the most destructive and damaging attacks that the world has ever witnessed. They might think it's just a game however, with the FBI investigating the case, they might find serious consequences.

Europe bites back at fake news

We have previously reported on fake news on social media in relation to the US election. However, with France and Germany casting their ballots this year, it has moved up the European agenda.

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

"We find that populists all over Germany are using fake news to alter the mood of the population," David Schraven from Correctiv informs me. While he acknowledges the difficulties that confront his organization, he believes that it is vital for democracy. "It is crucial to make a sound election decision and to be as well informed as you can about truth in the world of.

Andrus Ansip (Vice President of the European Commission), is in charge for the Digital Single Market. He admits that there's an issue. He said that it is up to social media platforms to tackle the problem, not governments. "Fake news is bad but Ministry of Truth is worse" He told our reporter Joe Miller in Davos at the World Economic Forum.
Minecraft Server List

He believes that if people do not believe what they read on platforms like Facebook or Twitter they will switch to other platforms which means that the issue will self-correct. This could be a positive reflection of the importance social media users place upon accurate information.

Samsung's woes

Samsung, the mobile phone company, has had a rough few months. After a few 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 announces the results of its investigation into the issue.

Now , it's been caught up in the corruption scandal that involved the South Korean President Park Geun Hye.

JY Lee, the Samsung director, was interviewed by investigators regarding allegations of bribery to get support for a merger.

Despite these crises Samsung seems in a position to continue its business like normal, with the Korean public not being too concerned about its conduct. Our man in Seoul, Steve Evans, is on the programme to discuss how important Samsung is to the economics of South Korea. The company's revenue makes up 17 percent of South Korea's GDP. This industrial conglomerate also produces mobile phones and is involved in everything from funerals to hospitals. Koreans have to deal with Samsung from the cradle to the grave.