So, I'm just a very below average citizen. I love technology. I live near the coolest Great Lake- and I find things on the internet that make me wonder... The biggest thing I wonder about is what the "Vision Thing" is. I want to know how the meta and micro worlds collide. And, yes, I have found another thing to wonder about:
A home science experiment that probed billions of Internet devices reveals that thousands of industrial and business systems offer remote access to anyone.
http://www.technologyreview.com/...
You probably haven’t heard of HD Moore, but up to a few weeks ago every Internet device in the world, perhaps including some in your own home, was contacted roughly three times a day by a stack of computers that sit overheating his spare room…
Let's jump over the watery cyber puddle.
The new work adds to other significant findings from Moore’s unusual hobby. Results he published in January showed that around 50 million printers, games consoles, routers, and networked storage drives are connected to the Internet and easily compromised due to known flaws in a protocol called Universal Plug and Play (UPnP). This protocol allows computers to automatically find printers, but is also built into some security devices, broadband routers, and data storage systems, and could be putting valuable data at risk.
Data collected by Moore’s survey has also helped Rapid7 colleagues identify how a piece of software called FinFisher was used by law enforcement and intelligence agencies to spy on political activists. It also helped unmask the control structure for a long-running campaign called Red October that infiltrated many government systems in Europe.
However, Moore has no plans to probe the entire Internet again. Large power and Internet bills, and incidents such the Chinese government’s Computer Emergency Response Team asking U.S. authorities to stop Moore “hacking all their things” have convinced him it’s time to find a new hobby.
I don't know what to make of this- there's no use saying
it appears to be rampant, because so much of this cyber stuff
appears nowhere to the user. And if it did, what do most people know about correcting or protecting from it? Do you want to know what I watch on Netflix? Oops, I just said I watch that- I saw a stat this week that said 30% of bandwidth from 6-9pm is streaming from that red video tv. Is there a weakness in my dvd player? How the hell would I know? And would it stop me from watching Elvis Costello's
Spectacle http://www.elviscostello.com/...? Doubt it. I just found this regarding the 30% usage… which I thought- but what do I know- was inflated:
http://www.forbes.com/...
Netflix is small part of overall Internet traffic but a big part of last-mile traffic. Netflix saves money and time and offers higher quality streaming by replicating and caching its content at data centers across the U.S. (and now Canada) to be as close to its customers as possible. That episode of Battlestar Galactica you watched last night did not travel across the entire Internet backbone from Reed Hastings’ office to your living room. It probably only traveled a few miles or so. Netflix tries to minimize its presence on the true Internet backbone.
Back to my title: cyber and water- not dirt wars, but something I wonder about from time to time. Especially since I'm sitting right next to them. My concern isn't so much for myself- small potatoes here, it's for the hospitals, the small industries, the government offices… My only real paranoia is because the Chinese are so involved- look at that picture in the article- China is a vast wasteland except for its power centers… and sorry, but have you seen some of their "innovations and inventions"? They're complete ripoffs of protected patents in sovereign nations. I suspect, and I may be paranoid here, they get that through these weak links. No additional physical, human, spies or bribery needed.