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Krebs Pinpoints the Likely Author of the Mirai Botnet (engadget.com)
The Mirai botnet caused serious trouble last fall, first hijacking numerous IoT devices to make a historically massive Distributed Denial-Of-Service (DDoS) attack on KrebsOnSecurity's site in September before taking down a big chunk of the internet a month later. But who's responsible for making the malware? From a report on Engadget: After his site went dark, security researcher Brian Krebs went on a mission to identify its creator, and he thinks he has the answer: Several sources and corroborating evidence point to Paras Jha, a Rutgers University student and owner of DDoS protection provider Protraf Solutions. About a week after attacking the security site, the individual who supposedly launched the attack, going by the username Anna Senpai, released the source code for the Mirai botnet, which spurred other copycat assaults. But it also gave Krebs the first clue in their long road to uncover Anna Senpai's real-life identity -- an investigation so exhaustive, the Krebs made a glossary of cross-referenced names and terms along with an incomplete relational map.
Anna is a pure good girl who would never break the law like that!
https://krebsonsecurity.com/20...
BK rocks BTW.
"...an investigation so exhaustive," Really? How exhaustive was it? Are we talking 2 searches on Google Exhaustive? Or what?
This is a technical community. Why link to a pre-digested Engadget re-telling of a really great piece by Krebs?
pinpointed the botnets original author? Are we sure Brian Krebs isnt some character out of the Marvel universe??
Good people go to bed earlier.
Wow, what if it wasn't this Paras Jha guy? Defamation/slander/whatever!
Why link to a 4-paragraph crappy article when Krebs just posted a masterpiece in infosec reporting? PS: Is it me or Engadget has just given up on reporting altogether and are posting ONLY 2-3 paragraph stories now with 30 ads around them?
I had theorized a frustrated biochem student who mistakenly attributed the creator of the Krebs Cycle.
Brian Krebs rules.
Indictments in 3...2...1...
The only question is will that be days, weeks, months, or years?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
a southeast asian, there's a surprise. Those guys have no morals.
Given the level of investigative effort from Krebs, I hope this little shitstain gets the friggen' chair.
I'm not kidding when I say that all of the fuckers who do this kind of shit should be shot in the face.
If they let me I'd do it myself for free and I'd even bring my own gun and ammo.
A few applications of my patented "shotgun to the face" treatment and most if not all of these shitbags would reconsider the value of running botnets and DDOS ops.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
So if Anna hurt a lot of folks who have a demonstrated willingness to break the law, and they find out the details on who anna is, will anna get hurt in some economic, reputation, or bodily harm way?
My guess is that Anna knows the community they worked within, and their abilities, and can determine the threat level.
It might be a good time for law enforcement of some sort to keep an eye on Anna so that they can use her as a honeypot, and put not only the Mirai author in prison, but the folks who would likely pay to have Anna harmed, in prison too.
Criminals
Surely the FBI is trying to find out the identity of the criminal who created this botnet. Why would Krebs go public with it, instead of going to the authorities? At the bottom of the article, it says "The FBI officials could not be immediately reached for comment." What does that mean? "could not be immediately reached?" Why was he doing this investigation alone? And why did the author of the botnet release the source code?
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/who-is-anna-senpai-the-mirai-worm-author/
We do we link to some shitty gadget blog instead of the original author with real credibility?
Putin.
...the point would be that this person be punished fully to the degree appropriate to the economic damage they wrought.
I like execution for any crime where the costs exceed $1 million, whether they're a hacker or Goldman Sachs.
-Styopa
IMHO, this is the best part of this story: "Digital Shadows noted that the Mirai author appears to have used another nickname: “OG_Richard_Stallman,”"
Would agree with your crime fighting methods.
I can't say that I don't like it in theory, but in practice it seems to have some side effects.
LifesABeach is all talk, talk, talk. Takes more than Google search, you can't tell who did it unless you catch him in the act. Sad.
Just curious ^.^
I actually read through the whole article and its great detective work. I get the feeling people were bragging to krebby because of how famous he is and they, being anonymous hackers, can never shut up and stop bragging. I love how the reddit account mentioned has recent postings (last one 3 days ago), hasn't been scrubbed, and links together many aspects of the guys life (his love for anime, the dorm he lives in at ruttegers, discussion of botnets and networking).
A life lived online is not very anonymous it seems! especially when you re-use handles and are young and really really like to brag.
Hopefully he made enough to buy a plane ticket away from the USA before the shoe drops on him. I'd be at the airport right now if i was him. Love how Jha says at the end "I don't think there are enough facts to definitively point the finger at me," Jha said. âoeBesides this article, I was pretty much a nobody. "
Well so were all the serial killers and other sociopaths of history... obviously! Someone did the detective work and now they are notorious, like you.
My advice? Run! The FBI surely has enough resources to get IP address for skype users, and reddit gives up their users at the drop of a hat. The FBI can easily take possession of his computer equipment with this kind of evidence. I doubt he was that careful and everything is tight and anonymous at the layer 3 level.
Expecting to see him arrested within days! FBI doesn't like to be made a fool of!
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
Admittedly, from the quality/depth of the linked article, one might be left to wonder...
In Soviet Russia, senpai gets noticed!
Wait, I thought it was Russians? After all, "Mirai" means "gullible" in Russian.
THIS is how you attribute hackers, with facts.
Hey - NSA, FBI and 15 other "intelligence" agencies, pay attention if you want people to believe your 13+ pg reports.
He is butt hurt about the loss of his site and is witch hunting. Be very wary of anything that comes out of his mouth, as he is starting to sound and act like Captain Ahab.
Sucks to be the one singled out.
stop repeating yourself
use a comment subject that isn't the first sentence of your actual comment.
use a comment subject that isn't the first sentence of your actual comment.
gets annoying, doesn't it?
gets annoying, doesn't it?
In this day and age, that appears to be enough. Loser. -- with no apologies to the fat ass and chief.
The original article is good but a long read.
Regards Eion MacDonald
American individuals who play this game, and do not have Mafia lawyers, will eventually receive long prison sentences for multiple counts of extortion.
The upside is the rush of power, and revenues in the thousands of dollars. These are poor compensation for a decade or more in the slammer.