German Police Arrest MIRAI Mastermind

** Breaking News **

German Prosecutor Office in Cologne and the German Federal Police announced today they have arrested a British National who they are accusing of being the mastermind behind last years Internet of Things attack (MIRAI attack).

The original press release (in German) is here :

The Google translated version of the Press Release is here:

“In the noon hours of 22 February 2017, a 29-year-old British national was arrested at a London airport of British National Crime Agency (NCA) forces. The arrest was made on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued by the Central Office and the contact point Cybercrime NRW (ZAC NRW) of the Cologne Public Prosecution Office. The investigation is conducted by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), which has prepared the arrest of the accused in England in close cooperation with the British law enforcement agencies.Officials of the Federal Criminal Police Office are involved in the further investigations.

The British are accused of attempted computer abuse in a particularly serious case. He is suspected of having carried out an attacking campaign against the Internet, at the end of November 2016, whereby more than 1,000,000 Deutsche Telekom customers could no longer use their Internet connection. The consequences were, among other things, breakdowns of Internet and telephone services of the affected connections. The aim of the attack wave should have been to take over the routers and integrate into a bot network operated by the accused. The bot network is supposed to have offered the accused in the Darknet for consideration for arbitrary attack scenarios, such as so-called DDoS attacks.

A bot network is a multitude of infected and interconnected devices used for large-scale cyber attacks, malware distributions and similar criminal offenses.

The nationwide attack against the Internet access router at the end of November 2016 is a threat to critical communication infrastructures. For this reason, the Federal Criminal Police Office was responsible for investigations on behalf of ZAC NRW.

From the outset, Deutsche Telekom AG cooperated with law enforcement agencies. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) also provided technical support in the analysis of the malicious software used.
Successful arrests within the shortest possible time after arrest are the result of a close international cooperation of German, British and Cypriot law enforcement agencies with the participation of Europol and Eurojust.
The Act provides for a completed computer abuse in a particularly severe case a imprisonment of 6 months to 10 years. The penalty can be mitigated by the trial. The prosecutor’s office in Cologne carries out the extradition of the accused to Germany.

Further information can not be given on the basis of the ongoing investigations at the present time.”