Many years ago, Woody Allen did a standup bit about how his household appliances were conspiring against him. His paranoia may be coming true.
The recent hack that brought down many big internet sites was launched using the Internet of Things, which is Web-connected appliances such as DVRs, video cameras and thermostats. Those devices were woven into huge botnets that flooded a company vital to the internet with data and disabled it.
When the core internet company, Dyn, went down, so did many websites, including Twitter, Amazon, Tumblr, Reddit, Spotify and Netflix. TechMan noticed it when he could not reach pnc.com
So why use these common devices in the attack? First, there are a lot of them. Most were built with low or no security and many had a common default password that users did not change.
That was the case with the devices used in the attack. The Chinese company XiongMai Technologies made many of the components that are sold to vendors who use them in their own products, according to KrebsOnSecurity.com.
But it is not as though we didn’t know this was coming. Security companies have been constantly hacking IOT devices — cars, the Internet-connected Hello Barbie, a pacemaker, baby monitors, a “smart fridge” and a sniper rifle among others — to show their vulnerabilities.
The onus to protect us from this lies mostly on the manufacturers and government regulators. But there are some things you can do, according to Recode.net:
— Change the factory-given password on your router and your router’s network ID name from the default.
— Don’t buy internet-connected devices that don’t allow you to password-protect the connection.
— And as soon as you install a new device, change the factory-set password.
— Make sure the software and firmware of your devices are up-to-date.
One for the good guys. TechMan has complained that not enough is being done to fight Internet fraudsters and scammers. But some good news. Authorities arrested dozens in the United States and is seeking extradition of individuals from India where an IRS scam was devised. The scheme involved robocalls to people saying the IRS was suing them and urging them to settle.
Another for the good guys. A 36-year-old hacker from Lancaster, Pa., who stole nude photos of female celebrities in 2014 that ended up on the internet, has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison, officials announced last week. More than 100 personal photos were taken from celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson.
Sad. The chief executive of Robin Labs, an Israeli firm that created a virtual assistant for giving drivers traffic advice and directions told the International Business Times his firm noticed that a large proportion of conversations with its virtual assistant seemed to be sexually explicit. Microsoft has observed users of the Cortana virtual assistant behaving in a similar way, so in 2015 it built in new responses to shut down questions about her sex life. Mr. Eckstein said he thinks the digital dirty talkers are teenagers pushing the limits or lonely men.
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First Published: November 1, 2016, 4:00 a.m.