Three men have pleaded guilty to charges related to the widespread Mirai botnet cyberattack in Oct. 2016 that took down various Internet services and websites.
The Justice Department said Wednesday that the three men—Paras Jha, Josiah White, and Dalton Norman—created what’s known as a botnet, a collection of computers used to covertly carry out commands without the knowledge of their owners.
The men, all in their early 20s, were able to spread the so-called Mirai malware onto Internet-connected devices like routers and wireless cameras so they could take control of them. The men then used those web-connected devices to flood online services like Internet-monitoring firm Dyn with so much traffic that they would slow or go offline.
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One of the men, Jha, plead guilty to also launching a botnet attack on Rutgers University where he was a student, which took down the school’s computer network. Jha’s guilty plea confirmed an earlier report by cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebbs, who wrote an article in Jan. 2017 tracing the Mirai botnet attacks to Jha and White.
The NJ Ledger just moved a story confirming my original reporting in January 2017, that Mirai co-author Paras Jha was responsible for the series of Mirai botnet attacks on Rutgers University, where he was a computer science undergrad student https://t.co/VupNNXnC8r
— briankrebs (@briankrebs) December 13, 2017
A lawyer representing Jha said he is remorseful and “accepts full responsibility for his actions.”
Statement from Paras Jha's lawyer: "Starting when he was just 19 years old, (Jha) made a series of mistakes with significant consequences that he only now fully appreciates. He is extremely remorseful and accepts full responsibility for his actions." pic.twitter.com/GlrpzYd4W6
— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) December 13, 2017
