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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 You can stream the newest episode of Tech Tent on the BBC website. Download the latest episode as a podcast Listen to previous episodes on the BBC website. Every Friday, you can listen live at 14.00 GMT on the BBC World Service My podcast's most talked-about story this week is Cyberwarfare, which is raging below the surface of a game that has a primary audience of children. We also examine Europe's battle with fake news, and we hear how South Korean electronics giant Samsung has been tainted by a corruption scandal in the government. Minecraft and a botnet fight The Mirai botnet hacked thousands of connected devices to launch massive denial of service attacks (DDoS) against major websites last year - and in the process sparked a major panic about the security of the Internet of Things. Brian Krebs, a security researcher was among the victims. He has published an extensive investigation into Mirai's origins and the people who made it. This was a remarkable piece of investigative journalism and took him several months to complete. His story is remarkable because it was a fight for Minecraft, a popular educational game, which resulted in the massively disruptive DDoS attacks. It turns out that such attacks are used against very lucrative Minecraft servers, as well as those who provide security protection. One of the people on the receiving end was Robert Coelho, whose firm ProxyPipe helps clients combat DDoS attacks. He added, "We can't have servers down for more than 10 minutes at a time." MINECRAFT SERVERS If that happens, players will go elsewhere while the server firms will look for other security companies. Coelho says that there are a lot of bad actors in Minecraft. "Because a lot servers are run by minors and there's a lot of money involved, it's very common." THINKOFDEATH Another thing that stands out about Brian Krebs' article is the youth of a lot of the people involved in these online battles. Teenagers seem to have carried out some of the most destructive and destructive attacks that the world has ever witnessed. They might think it's an innocent game however, with the FBI investigating the matter, they could discover grave consequences. Europe bites back at fake news We've previously discussed the issue of fake news on social media in relation to was related to US elections, but with Germany and France voting this year, the issue has moved up the agenda in Europe. Facebook announced plans to combat fake news in Germany this week. Correctiv, an independent journalistic and fact-checking organization, will examine any articles that are deemed to be suspect by readers. Correctiv's David Schraven tells me that "we see that populists across Germany are using fake news to influence 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 as much as you can about the truth of the society." The vice-president of the European Commission Andrus Ansip, who is in charge of the Digital Single Market, admits there's a problem. He stated that it's the responsibility of social media platforms to deal with the issue, not the government. He also said that fake news is bad however, the Ministry of Truth is worse. This was his remark to Joe Miller at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He believes that if users do not believe what they read on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter they will switch to other platforms and the issue will self-correct. This could be a positive reflection of the importance that social media users place on accurate news. Samsung's woes The giant of mobile phones Samsung has had a torrid time in the past few months. First it had to withdraw its Galaxy Note 7 phone after several of them caught fire. (We will know more about that when it releases the findings of its investigation into the issue on Monday). It is now involved in the corruption scandal that involved South Korean President Park Geun Hye. Five Samsung executives, including boss JY Lee has been questioned over allegations of bribes being paid to secure support for a merger. Despite these challenges, Samsung seems able to continue its business like normal, with the Korean public not being concerned about its actions. Steve Evans, our man in Seoul is on the program to discuss how crucial Samsung is to South Korea's economy. Its revenues amount to 17 percent of the country's GDP and as well as mobile phones this vast industrial company is involved in everything from hospitals to funerals. Koreans really do encounter Samsung from the time they are born to the grave.
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