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Home webcams that were hijacked to help knock popular websites offline last week are being recalled in the US.
Chinese electronics firm Hangzhou Xiongmai issued the recall soon after its cameras were identified as aiding the massive web attacks.
They made access to popular websites, such as Reddit, Twitter, Spotify and many other sites, intermittent.
Security experts said easy-to-guess default passwords, used on Xiongmai webcams, aided the hijacking.
The web attack enrolled thousands of devices that make up the internet of things - smart devices used to oversee homes and which can be controlled remotely.
Will we go through this over and over with toasters, refrigerators, and every other connected appliance?
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Webcams Used to Attack Reddit and Twitter Recalled
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Hey, wait a minute!! I want a divorce!! ... you're not Clint Eastwood!!
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Tuesday October 25 2016, @03:30PM
Read the article. It is just a downloadable update. Still gotta give em props for stepping up and owning the problem, always the right move from a PR standpoint. Amazing so many companies get that wrong.
But as we move down the IoT foodchain we -will- see it, as the devices are built so cheaply they won't be field updatable once they get hacked or the hacks close off the normal update capability. Doubt we will see manufacturers building stuff with failsafe ROM based recovery procedures. Nope, they will buy the SoC vendor promises of the glories of crypto magic, sign the firmware image and assume it will be uncrackable... both from hackers and the rightful owner. Both will prove wrong.
It is almost like we are intentionally building a world that can be destroyed with almost zero effort by any nation state actor. Suspect people took the wrong lesson from the Cold War and MAD. MAD worked in a world where only a handful of large nation states could build a bomb and all were basically sane enough that they understood the pointlessness of actually turning the world into a bad video game or disaster movie. Especially the Commies. They were Evil with the capital E but as Atheists they wanted to rule this world instead of scoring points for the afterlife. Ruling a burned out wasteland didn't turn their crank. But it isn't just nation states that can launch a civilization extinction level event now. A lot of anarchists and even stranger groups can gain the ability to launch network attacks and then there is Islam. One well built Warhol Worm will change everything. And there are a hundred or more organizations/states that could pull one off now and the number will grow until one does it or we get our act together. Place your bets.
(Score: 4, Touché) by bob_super on Tuesday October 25 2016, @05:18PM
> Especially the Commies. They were Evil with the capital E
Yup. Those Evil bastards supported dictators, torture, indefinite imprisonment without trial, foreign wars, massive weapons programs as their infrastructure crumbled, training kids to parade their flag, covert weapons sales to bad actors, spying on everyone, state-sponsored kidnappings at home and abroad, unchecked bureaucracies ... and wrestling control away from their feudal lords.