Slashdot Mirror
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.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/20...
BK rocks BTW.
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.
Don't write and use DDoS bots if you don't want to end up on the front page of the Internet is fairly simple, but you got caught and now sour grapes about it. Maybe try bragging less next time?
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.
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.
"...an investigation so exhaustive," Really? How exhaustive was it? Are we talking 2 searches on Google Exhaustive? Or what?
It's almost like you didn't read the article.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Meh, sounds more like the anger I harbor.
Which is more "Fuck you for getting there first" than just "Fuck you".
I would argue that no one on this site would be against controlling botnets of this size and capability. Half of you already site behind networks ranging in the thousands of devices.
Yep, and it is easy to figure out who did what and when. All you need do is ask them.
Nah, some people, even here, have an actual conscience.
Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
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?
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.
For once, AC didn't even need to read the article - it's in the summary. Anna is claimed to be a man.
I knew I needed to stop reading Slashdot and finish my PhD when I started to miss articles by Bennett Haselton.
Given your use of grammar i'm guessing that maybe English isn't your first language? If someone says "X was so Y" followed by a comma and then a statement, it is generally accepted that the statement following the comma is in support of "X was so Y".
So your original question "Really? How exhaustive was it?" was answered immediately after the bit you quoted, which is why everyone else who is more fluent in English was confused by you asking the question in the first place. To them the answer was right there in plain sight.
In full: "an investigation so exhaustive, the Krebs made a glossary of cross-referenced names and terms along with an incomplete relational map." In other words it was so exhaustive that he had to produce multiple kinds of reference material just to make the sum total of the data understandable.
Admittedly that doesn't provide a great deal of detail, implying the "exhaustiveness" of the investigation by the amount of data produced, but providing an answer that is light in details is not the same as not providing an answer at all. Also, referring to Brian Krebs as "the Krebs" is a little weird, but it's not entirely uncommon for people to refer to a notable individual in such a manner.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
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
Which is more "Fuck you for getting there first" than just "Fuck you".
Nope, not me. I genuinely hate the idea that one or two fuckheads with a botnet can wreck the internet for tens of thousands or even millions of people, or destroy the livelihood of people who are just trying to do something like providing a legitimate service such as a Minecraft server.
-
I would argue that no one on this site would be against controlling botnets of this size and capability.
I disagree...I don't think that the majority of people on Slashdot are amoral fuckheads without a shred of integrity. You might fit into that category, however.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
RTFA?! Why? If one casually notices the quotes, it's those two little marks placed together, it's used to 'quote' a source. The quoted source implies that the reader doesn't comprehend what is being explained.
I agree, it's clear that you don't comprehend what is being explained.
If, however, you had taken a moment to just look at the article it probably would have answered your ignorance, demonstrated by what you wrote: "Really? How exhaustive was it? Are we talking 2 searches on Google Exhaustive? Or what?"
You're free to be as ignorant as you like but don't get your panties in a twist when others point out that your ignorance is a self-inflicted wound.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Lol, "The Krebs".
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I'm commenting on the post; see the quotes, they have a use. Google it?
Some people are hard of hearing but you appear to be hard of thinking.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
In Soviet Russia, senpai gets noticed!
Wait, I thought it was Russians? After all, "Mirai" means "gullible" in Russian.
Sucks to be the one singled out.
It depends if you stole $1 million from a crook or from many people who didn't have much money in the first place.
If you want to make the punishment fair, at least make it proportional to that actual harm done to people. Money means nothing.
In this day and age, that appears to be enough. Loser. -- with no apologies to the fat ass and chief.
Like hacking into one pc and saying 'hi' causing their firm to have to spend 2 million upgrading all their pcs security.... or sharing 20 tunes.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
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.