“A cyber attack on the Internet infrastructure company Dyn on October 21 hindered internet browsing for hours while the company scrambled to restore service. The as-yet unidentified attackers were helped by a millions-strong army of Internet of Things devices, including enterprise webcams and DVRs, that were quietly conscripted into a botnet to launch the denial-of-service attack.” This update from WIRED on the attack on Dyn includes an interesting analysis of the ability of companies to monitor attacks and quarantine devices that have been compromised.
Community IT Innovators just covered the topic of assessing your IT risk in a recent webinar.
The article below from WIRED gives a clear overview of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the role it played in the latest security attack on the plain old internet.
“Despite what you may have heard, your webcam and DVR and baby monitor and smart refrigerator almost certainly aren’t complicit in last Friday’s collapse. You’re not an accessory to botnet. At least, not this time.
It’s true that what took down the internet was a botnet comprising internet-connected devices, and that those devices included hundreds of thousands webcams and DVRs, two items many people keep in their homes. That’s not the type implicated in this attack, though. As it turns out, the type of botnet in question, called Mirai, recruits not the Late Show-recording computer your cable company installed, or to the Dropcam you point out the window.
The zombie webcam army responsible for Friday’s mayhem instead consists of industrial security cameras, the kind you’d find in a doctor’s office or gas station, and the recording devices attached to them. Also? They’re mostly ancient, by technological standards.”