In case you missed it, the Internet was brought to its knees all over the US last Friday by a Denial of Service Attack (DDOS). Millions of devices participated in the attack, possibly some of them in your home! Perhaps not your computers or phones or tablets, but anything else you have connected to the Internet like your router, your TV, your set top boxes, your video recorders, and your Internet-of-things devices like security cameras, thermostats, doorbells…just to name a few.
These devices have little, if any security and are easily hacked. Hackers planted a simple program in them, that when activated, starts sending out signals requesting access to one company…in this case a little known company called DYN that acts as a giant switchboard for the Net. With millions and millions of requests all coming in at once, the company is basically shut down, thereby bringing down major services like Twitter, Reddit, and many others who rely on that company for connectivity. The outage spread all over the country and even to Western Europe.
No one knows who did this, but you can count on the fact that it will happen again. You see, access to this DDOS software is available on the Net. With little or no security on these millions of devices, they can be activated again and again with the same results. Unfriendly countries like Russia or North Korea, or organized crime or even malicious teenagers could start another attack. The Department of Homeland Security, which is supposed to be in charge or protecting us from these cyber attacks, is a joke!
With billions of more home devices coming on-line over the next few years, we could be in deep, deep trouble as the manufacturers buy cheap parts from Asia that are easily hacked. I strongly suggest you read our first three stories to learn about what happened and, more importantly, what will happen. -JRC
Tech News and Opinions
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