On Friday October 21st, hacked home devices caused widespread internet outages. According to UsaToday, the victim of the attack was, Dyn, New Hampshire-based company that manages internet traffic. At 7:10 ET, users on the East Coast were blocked from Twitter, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, Tumblr, Reddit and PayPal, among others.

The attack was categorized as a DDoS, or a distributed denial of service attack. According to Digital Attack Map, a DDoS is an

“attempt to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. They target a wide variety of important resources, from banks to news websites, and present a major challenge to making sure people can publish and access important information”

The map on the right depicts the concentration of website outages in America on the 21st. Long Valley happened to be a hot spot for these attacks.

How did these attacks affect WMC?

Senior Lauren Gunning says that she did not experience any website outages.

Although the attacks many have seemed insignificant, one must understand the magnitude of this particular DDoS attack. For websites as major as Twitter to be down for even a few minutes is a big deal.

What makes this attack different?

This attack targeted the Internet of Things, a fairly recent evolution in modern technology. The so-called IOT links real-world objects to the internet, making previously disconnected objects vulnerable to attack. Devices part of the IOT range from cell phones to smart traffic lights.

Why should you care?

Our society is only becoming more and more connected. If the devices that you own are vulnerable to attack, so are you and your personal information. It’s not just credit card info and social security numbers that are at risk. Now your home security systems and coffee-makers are potential targets for crippling internet attacks.

Photo Credit: Adweek, Down Detector