Major DDoS attack (US East, US West, Europe)

[Geo 🇺🇦 🌻]

This is downright scary: www.wired.com/2016/10/internet-outage-ddos-dns-dyn/

At face value, this doesn't seem as bad because this type of attack won't lead to any compromise of information. It's merely there to disrupt. However, when someone has the power to disrupt access to large portions of the internet at a time, well, that becomes a bigger impact because we are a connected society.

Anyways, if you live on the east or west coast, you may notice that some sites (list here: gizmodo.com/this-is-probably-why-half-the-internet-shut-down-today-1788062835 ) are inaccessible at times. Hopefully they can mitigate the problem but there is no guarantee that this won't happen again in the future.

Here are some updates from Dyn, the service that's under attack: www.dynstatus.com/incidents/nlr4yrr162t8

[Geo 🇺🇦 🌻]

Oh the scarier part? The botnet used for this attack contains Internet of Things devices. You know, things like internet connected home camera systems, thermostats, sprinkler systems, webcams, etc.

arstechnica.com/security/2016/10/double-dip-internet-of-things-botnet-attack-felt-across-the-internet/

The real problem is, security takes engineering hours which means it costs the company making the product time and money. Thus, they decided that security wasn't a big deal and sacrificed it for quicker profits. Attacks like these should be a wake-up call. One would hope these private corporations would realize this and make this a priority. However, more than likely, it's going to take some regulation. There needs to be a security standard. We have these standards for banking websites, medical devices, and other services online today.