The author of the BrickerBot malware has claimed a cyber-attack that took place in various Indian states and has caused over 60,000 modems and routers to lose Internet connectivity.
The incident affected modems and routers belonging to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), two Indian state-owned telecommunications service providers.
From Tuesday, July 25 and up to Saturday, July 29, users reported losing Internet connectivity as routers and modems became stuck with their red LED remaining always on.
BSNL told local press that malware caused the downtime. Besides customers routers, the malware also affected routers part of BSNL's National Internet Backbone (NIB), but these were immediately recovered.
An employee of BSNL's technical team told Deccan Chronicle that the incident caused modems in northeast, north and south Indian states to lose connectivity. According to The Hindu, the downtime was prolonged until Saturday because BSNL employees were also on strike.
BSNL estimated that 60,000 modems lost connectivity, affecting 45% of all their broadband connections. MTNL did not provide any numbers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @06:56PM (4 children)
who cares
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @07:02PM (1 child)
Telemarketers/scammers from India care.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday August 02 2017, @07:04PM
Is there any way to direct the BrickerBot(s) to an IP of interest? ;-)
Such that the originating IP from which the "remote assistance" is made from gets the BrickerBot thing?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03 2017, @01:14AM (1 child)
People say "who cares" until a huge botnet of compromised devices is used to hack their bank, their pension organization, their hospital or any number of organizations that hold their private information. That's why it matters.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Thursday August 03 2017, @08:38AM
Read TFA. Their modems were bricked. End of problem.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday August 02 2017, @07:07PM (1 child)
Is there any list of equipment vulnerable to the BrickerBot?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday August 02 2017, @09:24PM
Not sure that matters, since TFA said:
That's just batshit stupid.
Even Comcast is smart enough to not leave each modem set to factory defaults.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Nuke on Wednesday August 02 2017, @09:17PM
I wondered why the guys from "Windows" stopped calling me about my viruses.