Dive Brief:

• On Sunday into Monday, Deutsche Telekom was hit with a large-scale cyberattack that caused network outages for about 900,000 fixed-line customers, the company announced Monday. 
• Deutsche Telekom said its network was not attacked, but instead malicious actors targeted routers, attempting to infect them with malware. Though the attack was not successful, it caused service disruptions and as of Monday afternoon many customers were still not online. So customers can operate "disruption-free," the company is rolling out software updates for routers. 
• The telecom provider, with more than 20 million customers, pointed toward a new version of the Mirai botnet as responsible for the attack. In an interview with Computerworld, Johannes Ullrich, a security researcher with the SANS Technology Institute, said the botnet was upgraded and it is designed to exploit a vulnerability in Zyxel internet routers. 

Dive Insight:

Deutsche Telekom worked with the German Office for Information Security to analyze the attack. But in the end, the botnet was unsuccessful in delivering malware to hundreds of thousands of customers. 

The open-sourced Mirai botnet has continued to make headlines, disrupting internet infrastructure across the globe. Using thousands of compromised Internet of Things devices, the botnet can disrupt network traffic and take advantage of internet choke points. The botnet is now being used in new ways, showcasing how the technology could continue to cause headaches for service providers. 

Though the recent attack proved unsuccessful, it could still take days, if not weeks, for the service provider to recover.