A former Rutgers University student and two other men pleaded guilty to computer crimes related to the creation, sale and use of the Mirai botnet, a network of infected electronics equipment used to knock major websites offline in massive 2016 cyber attacks. Two other individuals, Josiah White, 20, and Dalton Norman, 21, also pleaded guilty to charges related to the development and use of Mirai for criminal gain. Jha and Norman also pleaded guilty to a separate online advertising fraud scheme. In September 2016, Norman and accomplices expanded Mirai, allowing it to infect more than 300,000 devices, prosecutors said. Anna-Senpai released the source code of the Mirai botnet online in September 2016, which gave other hackers the opportunity to use it.

Source: The Star December 14, 2017 02:03 UTC