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By Ry Crist, Cnet.com, Oct 25, 2016)Last Friday saw a massive internet outage after hackers flooded Dyn, a major internet gatekeeper for sites like Facebook, Spotify and Netflix, with false bandwidthfrom an ocean of unsecured internet-connected devices.
Many of these devices were reportedly smart home gadgets using standardized manufacturer default passwords. It's alarmingly easy for hackers to search the web for these devices and then, with the right malware, take control of them en masse. From there, the hackers can use their army of hacked devices, called a "botnet," to overwhelm whatever server they aim it at.
The episode raises some serious questions about the smart home. More and more people are filling their living spaces with an ever-increasing number of internet-connected devices. That means more potential fodder for the next big botnet, and fears of even bigger attacks in the future.
[Read Ry's report here.]