PC Magazine: The Internet of Things Industry Failed Us

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The most frustrating part of the recent DDoS attack is that there were plenty of warning signs.

By Max Eddy
October 26, 2016

This past weekend, the US Internet slowed to a crawl thanks to a distributed denial of service attack, or DDOS. It was an interesting attack for two reasons. First, the attackers -- whoever they are -- did not flood a single website with junk requests, as is the usual MO for DDOS attacks. Instead, they went after DNS provider Dyn, which caused numerous websites to slow to a crawl or cease operations entirely. Warnings about the over-centralization of DNS infrastructure suddenly became very interesting.

The second, and more important point, is that a sizable chunk of the devices involved in the DDoS attack were so-called smart Internet of Things devices. Usually, attackers spread malware through computers that will then follow the attacker's command and simultaneously request information from websites until the site buckles under the load. But this time, the shambling digital zombie hoard included security cameras and wireless routers.

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