A trio of hackers who orchestrated a denial of service attack that hijacked thousands of IOT devices are now cooperating with the FBI. Initially, their goal was to take down rival Minecraft users’ hosts, but they somehow caused much more damage than they intended.
The original article about the crime is here: https://www.wired.com/story/mirai-botnet-minecraft-scam-brought-down-the-internet/
You can check out the Mirai source code on Github here: https://github.com/jgamblin/Mirai-Source-Code
It is wise of the FBI and other agencies in the US to recruit these people instead of sentencing them to prison, assuming they aren’t complete sociopaths. The old system of requiring clearances in order to make an impact is frustrating, un-enticing and prevents talent from entering the government. If we can allow more people with skills in this area into the cyber security realm in our government in an expedited process, our country’s cyber security game will be substantially improved. In all likelihood, very few of these prospective employees would pass a background check.
https://www.wired.com/story/mirai-botnet-creators-fbi-sentencing/