There was a massive cyber attack last Friday on the internet here in the United States (affecting web users in other parts of the world as well : Brazil, Germany, India, Spain and the U.K). Authorities are still trying to determine who was behind it. (A group calling themselves ‘New World Hackers’ claimed responsibility on Twitter – without proof). The diagram from TIME magazine shows what happened. A botnet of internet-connected gadgets (surveillance cameras, printers, digital video recorders were deployed). These devices have weak or non-existent security, and we may soon see legislation that will force manufacturers to build in more security. They had better hurry : there are an estimated 6.4 billion things connected to the internet already, a number that will balloon to 20.8 billion just four years from now in 2020.
