Hackers Infect Army of Cameras, DVRs for Massive Internet Attacks

Hacking shows vulnerability of internet devices, security experts say 

 

 

Attackers used an army of hijacked security cameras and video recorders to launch several massive internet attacks last week, prompting fresh concern about the vulnerability of millions of “smart” devices​in homes and businesses connected to the internet.
The assaults raised eyebrows among security experts both for their size and for the machines that made them happen. The attackers used as many as one million Chinese-made security cameras, digital video recorders and other infected devices to generate webpage requests and data that knocked their targets offline, security experts said.
Those affected include French web hosting provider OVH and U.S. security researcher Brian Krebs, whose website was disabled temporarily.
“We need to address this as a clear and present threat not just to censorship but to critical infrastructure,” Mr. Krebs said.
Closely held OVH confirmed the attack, but declined to comment further. 

More here.

Fitting.

Giving your phone number to Facebook can be a bad idea

Do you want to become Facebook friends with the other patients at your therapist’s office? If you don’t, it’s a good idea to avoid giving Facebook your telephone number.
That’s the takeaway from a disturbing news report that looks at how Facebook finds those “People You May Know” who mysteriously appear in your Facebook feed.
The report, published on news site Fusion, describes how a psychotherapist in a small town began to see her patients pop up as suggestions when she went on Facebook. Worse, one of those patients, a 30-something snowboarder, asked her why a bunch of random 60-something people had shown up in his feed--he guessed (correctly) that they must be connected through the therapist’s office.
This raises obvious privacy implications. As the therapist noted, her patients included people with serious diseases or suicidal tendencies. Would they be comfortable with Facebook suggesting them as friends to the therapist’s other patients?
There’s also the question of how Facebook connected these people in the first place. The most obvious answer, noted by Fusion, is the social media giant used the telephone contacts of the therapist to guess the patients were connected.
A Facebook spokesperson would not confirm or deny that the phone number was the source of the common connections, and provided this statement instead:

“Without additional information from the people involved, we’re not able to explain why one person was recommended as a friend to another. People You May Know is based on a variety of factors, including mutual friends, work and education information, networks you're part of, contacts you've imported and many other factors.” 

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While the company makes a valid point that phone numbers are not the only piece of data used to suggest common friends, in the case of the therapist, it’s hard to point to any other explanation.

One way to avoid such situations, of course, is to avoid giving Facebook your phone number in the first place.

Link Here.