last Friday night, a panic seized the canvas : several heavyweights in the sector were in the harbour as a result of the cyber attack DDoS (denial of service) incurred by the service provider Dyn, which manages the DNS of sites such as Twitter, Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, Reddit, or even Paypal, Playstation Network, and various media (Wired, Business Insider and The Verge and Re/code). A massive attack deployed thanks to the internet of things.
With their presence increasingly important in our daily life, many experts appeal to consumers and public authorities on the need to secure connected objects. Last may, the CNIL issued, for example, a handy card for this purpose.
Tracking of activities, health data, location, home automation, look harmless, these connected objects are no less greedy in data and promise to invade our daily lives. However, the security of connected objects does not only concern the sensitive data they contain, with all aspects of protection of privacy that this may generate, it also relates to the use that some ill-intentioned people could do.
When the connected objects are crippling the internet
The attack against the company, Dyn, and paralysis of a part of the internet world that followed on Friday 21 October, is the most blatant example. Bad news never comes alone, this attack is required to repeat, or to multiply. But before we worry and destroy all the thermostats connected, it should be back on the attack and the manner in which it could occur and spread at such speed.
in all likelihood, the attack was orchestrated through a botnet enabled by the malware 'Mirai' (for which the source code has been published shortly before by a hacker on a forum for hacking). It malware addresses of connected objects bit secure making them a true “network zombie” able to withstand the attack.
The security of connected objects of controversy
The objects home automation and other connected devices, webcams, printers, passing through the thermostats are connected are very popular, because they are numerous and insecure, this is a known exploit, but, paradoxically, little monitored. According to Flashpoint, the malicious software 'Mirai' would have operated surveillance cameras, but also digital recorders. A method that is not without reminding us of the hacking of OVH last month via a network of 150 000 surveillance cameras.
The cyber attack has focused on the company Dyn, a sort of directory of the websites concerned, it is the link between your query and the site you want (and the IP address of its server). Once the objects are infected by the malware, the botnet no longer had to make the rest. The network zombie is set in motion by sending automatic queries to several web sites in order to overwhelm the servers and make them inaccessible.
paralysis issues multiple
Even if their number remains limited compared to the actors on the canvas, they are no less large, if not the largest, providers of traffic. Netflix, for example, is a wholesale provider of bandwidth. The platform SVoD alone accounts for 1/3 of internet traffic during peak hours.
The stakes of such an attack are multiple : securing the Internet of things to its economic impact for these companies in the digital sector (quid of estimated losses when those sites are down several hours or even days ?). Similarly, this attack reveals the fragility of the system : a single actor technique affected can lead to a failure of quasi-widespread web.
The department of homeland security and the FBI has already opened an investigation to identify the instigator of such an attack : hacker isolated, hacker group, or actor supported by a State ?
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