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"I think there are a lot of people out there

June 10, 2019 by Lena Webb

"I think there are a lot of people out there who are very concerned about the FBI being involved," says Paras White, who is an assistant U.S. Attorney in Alaska. "I certainly think the FBI has a strong responsibility to protect the public and keep Americans safe."

The man convicted of creating and operating the Mirai and Clickfraud botnets is named as David R. Burtman, a retired U.S. Coast Guard captain who works for a local company. He served as a member of the U.S. Coast Guard from 1986 to 1991, when he was deployed to Haiti.

The government and Burtman's company, Mirai, had partnered to create a botnet in Haiti, which was based on a botnet that used a unique code from the Internet. The computer that used the code was based on a similar botnet that had been built using code from the same name.

By the time it was discovered that Burtman had compromised a critical infrastructure that the government had developed for the purpose of creating a botnet on behalf of a foreign power, the Mirai and Clickfraud botnets had been in operation for more than four months.

Burtman was a member of the U.S. Coast Guard in the late '90s when he was stationed in Haiti and served at a U.S. Coast Guard base in Monterey, California.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Burtman confirmed that he had provided the code to Mirai and Clickfraud, and that his company was "working with state and local officials to develop a solution that will make Haiti safer."

"I do believe that our company did a good job," Burtman said, adding that Mirai and Clickfraud "have a lot of capabilities" that federal law enforcement agencies must have.

Burtman was convicted of violating the Controlled Substances Act and of providing "material assistance to any unlawful activity in violation of the Controlled Substances Act," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of California.

"The government does not believe that anyone has engaged in any criminal activity," Burtman said.

The Mirai and Clickfraud botnets involved were created in a way the government would not have known. In fact, it wasn't until a government audit in 2010 that the feds found that the Mirai and Clickfraud botnets were designed to "use information provided by third parties to carry out a legitimate purpose."