Security blogger Brian Krebs has identified the hacker behind the notorious Mirai botnet malware as a Britain named Daniel Kaye.

He was arrested by British police and extradited to Germany where he pleaded guilty to the hack of telecommunications provider Deutsche Telekom. The hack resulted in the loss of service to more than one million customers of the ISP. The U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested Kaye at a London airport, but it has not been disclosed as to where the suspect was fleeing to.

The 29-year-old said his motive was money as he was engaged to be married and wanted the funds to provide a good start to married life.

During his court appearance, he stated that the ISP was not his main target. His purpose was to enslave routers in order to carry out DDoS attacks. He claimed that a telecommunications firm in the West African country of Liberia had paid him $10,000 to attack a competitor.

The court is expected to sentence Kaye on July 28th. He could face a prison term of anywhere between 6 months and 10 years.

Source: Security Week