Tech Tent: Minecraft and a botnet battle with Rory Cellan-Jones Technology reporter @BBCRoryCJon Twitter
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My podcast's most talked-about story this week is Cyberwarfare which is raging below the surface of a game with the primary target audience of children.
We also discuss the fight against fake news in Europe and hear how South Korean electronics giant Samsung was implicated in corruption scandal.
Minecraft and a botnet battle
The Mirai botnet took over thousands of connected devices to launch massive attacks of denial of service (DDoS) against major websites last year - and in the process sparked an alarming concern about the security of the Internet of Things.
Brian Krebs, a security researcher was one of the victims. He has published an extensive investigation into Mirai's origins and the people behind it. This is a stunning piece of investigative journalism and took him a long time to complete.
His story is unique because it was a battle for Minecraft, a popular educational game, that caused the massively disruptive DDoS attacks.
It turns out that these attacks are targeted at lucrative Minecraft servers and the companies that provide them with security protection. One of the people on the receiving end was Robert Coelho, whose firm ProxyPipe helps clients deal with DDoS attacks.
He tells us: "We can't have servers down for more than 10 seconds at a stretch." If that happens, players will go elsewhere while the servers firms will look for other security providers.
Coelho states that there are a lot of bad actors in Minecraft. "Because a lot servers are run by children and there is a lot of money involved, attacks are extremely common."
Brian Krebs' article also emphasizes the youth of many participants in these online battles.
Teenagers appear to have launched some of the most devastating and destructive attacks the world has seen. They might think it's just a game but with the FBI investigating the case, they might discover serious consequences.
Europe is smacking back at fake news
We've covered the issue of fake news on social media as it related to the US elections However, with Germany and France having elections this year, the issue has been a focal point in Europe.
Facebook announced plans to fight fake news in Germany this week. Correctiv, a small independent journalistic and fact-checking organisation will review any article identified as suspect by readers.
Minecraft-server
Correctiv's David Schraven tells me that "we are aware that populists across Germany are using fake news in order to alter the mood" He acknowledges that his organization faces a daunting task, but he believes it is essential for democracy: "It's very important to make a good decision in an election, to know the most accurate information about the truth in society."
The European Commission's vice president Andrus Ansip, who is in charge of the Digital Single Market, admits there's a problem. He said that it is the responsibility of social media platforms to deal with the issue, not governments. He also said that fake news is harmful, but the Ministry of Truth is worse. This was his statement to Joe Miller at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
He thinks that if people don't believe what they read on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter they will switch to other platforms which means that the issue will self-correct. This could be a positive sign of the importance that social media users place upon accurate information.
Samsung's troubles
Samsung, the mobile phone company has had a difficult few months. First it had to withdraw its Galaxy Note 7 phone after several of them caught fire. (We'll hear more about it Monday when it announces the results of its investigation into this issue.
The company has now been caught up in the corruption scandal that afflicted the South Korean President Park Geun Hye.
Five Samsung executives, including the boss JY Lee, have been questioned about allegations of bribes being paid to get support for the merger.
Despite these challenges, the company seems to be going strong even with the Korean public not particularly upset about its actions. Steve Evans, our man in Seoul, is on the show to explain how important Samsung is to South Korea's economy. The company's revenue makes up 17% of South Korea's GDP. This industrial conglomerate also manufactures mobile phones and is involved in everything from funerals to hospitals. Koreans have become familiar with Samsung from the cradle until the grave.