Hackers Behind the Botnet That Broke the Internet Are Basically Cops Now
The three architects of the Mirai botnet just wanted to devise a scheme to make some money in the competitive business of hosting Minecraft servers. The weapon they built ended up showing the world how dangerous DDoS attacks can be. Now, their lives have taken another unexpected turn as the US Justice Department has given them a pass and some work to do.
On Tuesday, Josiah White, Paras Jha, and Dalton Norman were sentenced by a federal judge in the US state of Alaska to serve five years of probation. The three men, who are all 20-21 years old, pleaded guilty to participating in various ways in the creation and dissemination of the Mirai botnet. The decision came after a recommendation from the Justice Department that they be given a reduced sentence in return for their “extensive and exceptional” cooperation with authorities. In addition to keeping their noses clean for five years, they’ll also have to serve 2,500 hours of community service. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll be picking up garbage. Instead, the community service is being defined “to include continued work with the FBI on cybercrime and cybersecurity matters,” as the DOJ requested.
