Reaper ‘botnet’ could bring down the internet

A MASSIVE botnet that has been gathering steam over the past few weeks is threatening to ravage the web, security researchers have warned.

A botnet uses collections of devices like wifi routers or smart webcams which have been hacked to collaboratively send surges of data to servers - causing them crash, disrupt services and ultimately go offline.

Around this time last year, a similar attack called the Mirai botnet wiped out the internet across the US, targeting mostly the East Coast.

But Israeli security researchers at Check Point have discovered what they described as an entirely new and more sophisticated botnet that could cause a "cyber hurricane".

A blog post published on Check Point Research read: "So far we estimate over a million organisations have already been affected worldwide, including the US, Australia and everywhere in between, and the number is only increasing.

"Our research suggests we are now experiencing the calm before an even more powerful storm.

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