A hacker manipulated a botnet for eight years just to download anime

Isn’t it incredible that a botnet has been silently controlled for 8 years, and it is mainly used to download anime videos?

For nearly eight years, a hacker has been quietly hijacking D-Link NVRs (network video recorders) and NAS (network attached storage) devices into a botnet with the sole purpose of connecting to online sites and downloading anime videos.

Despite its size, the botnet has gone undetected by most cybersecurity firms, but Cereals is slowly dying out as the old D-Link equipment it relied on ages and users switch to newer products.

Additionally, a ransomware strain called "Cr1ptT0r" compromised the "Cereals" malware from many D-Link systems in the winter of 2019, which also accelerated the decline of this botnet.

What is somewhat puzzling is that the author of this botnet is allegedly a German named Stefan, who never had any criminal intent in the creation of "Cereals" and seemed to have only one purpose - to download animated shorts.