Record botnet shut down: 22-year-old from Oregon accused
A young man from the USA is said to be behind one of the strongest botnets and responsible for violent DDoS attacks. "Rapper Bot" has been shut down.
(Image: Portrait Image Asia/Shutterstock.com)
A 22-year-old from the US state of Oregon is accused of developing and operating one of the most powerful botnets to date. This has now been announced by the Alkas public prosecutor's office, where the case has landed. It explains that the accused offered the services of "Rapper Bot" in return for money. With the help of 65.000 to 95.000 infected devices, the botnet has regularly carried out DDoS attacks with 2 to 3 terabits per second (TBit/s) since 2021. The botnet's strongest attack could even have exceeded 6 TBit/s. Websites attacked in this way go offline, and the unwanted traffic can be expensive for the operators. Protective measures against such attacks also cost a lot of money. The accused's home was searched on August 6 and the botnet was taken out of circulation.
Attack targets in dozens of countries
While the prosecution only lists that the botnet was directed against targets in more than 80 states, a US government network, a popular social network and many tech companies, others are more specific. Security researcher Brian Krebs writes that "Rapper Bot" is said to have been responsible for massive outages on the short messaging service X at the beginning of March. However, the botnet is mainly said to have been directed against internet portals that were supposed to pay to avoid being targeted. Among others, betting portals from China were attacked in this way. Krebs himself was not attacked by "Rapper Bot", as those responsible did not want to call the law enforcement authorities.
Videos by heise
According to the public prosecutor's office, the botnet of the now 22-year-old is made up of digital video recorders, Wi-Fi routers and similar devices that were taken over with specialized malware – i.e. an IoT botnet. It was the most powerful and sophisticated botnet whose services could be purchased. An attack lasting just 30 seconds could cost the respective victims between 500 and 10.000 US dollars, it is said. According to Krebs, the person now accused worked together with another person. Both would have split the proceeds equally between them. If the accused from Oregon is found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, the public prosecutor's office continues. Krebs, however, considers this much unlikely.
(mho)
