Recently a botnet took down internet connection for millions of users. This Sunday, that same botnet called Mirai took out the internet connection of 900,000 Deutsche Telekom users in Germany. Mirai moved from attacking IoT to penetrating routers, which means it can exploit millions more of other internet users.

According to Deuutsche Telekom IT Security head Thomas Thchersich, the outage that affected 4.5 percent of its fixed-line customers was caused by a failed hack on users' routers, Reuters reported. The users suffered internet outage from Sunday to Monday. Mirai's attack was an attempt to turn all of the routers of those users into a part of its botnet.

The good thing is, most of these internet users can get back online by simply unplugging their routers and plugging them bike like a reboot.

Users from UK Also Affected

Besides Germany, over 100,000 internet users in the UK lost their connection, with botnet Mirai as the main suspected perpetrator. Mirai affected giant tech companies in UK, including TalkTalk, KCom, and Post Office. That brings the total number of internet users in Europe affected by Mirai to more than a million.

The total number could be greater than a million as Post Office reported 100,000 affected users, KCom reported 10,000 users were affected, while TalkTalk didn't divulge the exact number of affected users.

New Mirai Variant

Researchers from Flashpoint claim that these recent attacks were carried out by an updated version of the Mirai botnet. This new variant of the botnet attacks routers through their vulnerable parts. This means it can easily attack millions of other routers all over the globe.

Mirai takes control of Linux-run devices to knock the internet out. This can penetrate certain broadband routers and damage their internet connection.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes that these cyber attacks are becoming part of daily life. People should learn to get used to these attacks and cope up with them, she suggested.