Content area
Full text
Editor's Note: Welcome to my weekly column, Virtual Case Notes, in which I interview industry experts for their take on the latest cybersecurity situation. Each week I will take a look at a new case from the evolving realm of digital crime. For previous editions, please type "Virtual Case Notes" into the search bar at the top of the site.
Cybercriminals hack and infect the devices of others for a wide variety of reasons--for attention, for amusement, for monetary gain, etc. But what if a hacker not only hacked and infected your devices, but completely destroyed them--and then claimed it was for your own good?
It may sound preposterous, but this appears to be the message of a hacker known only as the "Janit0r," who claims to have created the malicious botnet known as BrickerBot, which infects devices and--instead of stealing private data or holding them hostage to use in subsequent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks--destroys, or "bricks," them, rendering them completely useless, even upon factory reset.
A DDoS attack occurs when multiple compromised devices or systems are used to flood a targeted network with an overwhelming amount of useless traffic; this interferes with the target's ability to provide its usual services. BrickerBot performs a different kind of attack, known as permanent denial of service (PDoS), in which it exploits security flaws in order to badly damage a device's firmware, ending its functions permanently.
"I consider my project a form of 'Internet Chemotherapy,'" the Janit0r said in an email to cyber writer Catalin Cimpanu from Bleeping Computer. "Chemotherapy is a harsh treatment that nobody in their right mind would administer to a healthy patient, but the Internet was becoming seriously ill in Q3 and Q4/2016 and the moderate remedies were ineffective. The side effects of the treatment were...