Analysts discover monster ‘botnet’ enslaving 10,000 devices daily, and threatening global computer chaos

Just as hurricane trackers chart storms in the Atlantic before they make landfall, cybersecurity researchers track viral infections that threaten mayhem. They’ve found a monster.

A massive zombie robotic network, or botnet, has expanded to infect “an estimated million organisations” and could bring corners of the internet to its knees, an Israeli cybersecurity company, Check Point Software, says.

“The next cyber hurricane is about to come,” Check Point says.

Several cybersecurity researchers Monday confirmed Check Point’s findings, saying the botnet could replicate, and perhaps dwarf, the Mirai botnet that almost exactly a year ago took down major websites on the Atlantic Coast, crippling a part of the Internet’s backbone and slowing traffic to a crawl.

The botnet, which has been named either “Reaper” or “IoTroop,” was first detected in mid-September. A Chinese cybersecurity firm, Qihoo 360, says the botnet is swelling by 10,000 devices a day, forcibly recruiting foot soldiers in an ever-larger invisible rogue army.

Cybercrime gangs form botnets by infecting internet-enabled devices, often wireless cameras or routers with weak security features. Once corralled, controllers can send commands for the botnet to overwhelm a target, knocking its website offline or crippling the internet.