New Digital 'Hurricane' Churns Gathering Strength To Land Blow On The Internet

In a follow up to our post earlier this month about the KRACK hack, an article yesterday in The Sacramento Bee titled "New Digital 'Hurricane' Churns, Gathering Strength To Land Blow On The Internet" describes a paper by Check Point Software, an Israeli Cyber-Security company, that suggests, " The next cyber-hurricane is about to come".

According to the article (in the source below), Several cyber-security researchers Monday confirmed Check Point’s findings, saying the botnet could replicate, and perhaps dwarf, the Mirai botnet that almost exactly a year ago took down major websites on the Atlantic Coast, crippling a part of the internet’s backbone and slowing traffic to a crawl.

The botnet, which has been named either “Reaper” or “IoTroop,” was first detected in mid-September. A Chinese cybersecurity firm, Qihoo 360, says the botnet is swelling by 10,000 devices a day, forcibly recruiting foot soldiers in an ever-larger invisible rogue army.

Cybercrime gangs form botnets by infecting internet-enabled devices, often wireless cameras or routers with weak security features. Once corralled, controllers can send commands for the botnet to overwhelm a target, knocking its website off line or crippling the internet.

The new botnet has spread across the United States, Australia and other parts of the globe, researchers say, although Check Point notes that “it is too early to assess the intentions” of those propagating the infection.

“It could be something that’s meant to create global chaos,” Maya Horowitz, threat intelligence group manager at Check Point, said in a telephone interview from Israel. “But it could be something that’s more targeted,” perhaps aimed at a country or industry.

She said it is unlikely that cybersecurity experts will be able to halt an eventual attack.

“The chances are pretty low for that,” Horowitz said, adding that like an epidemic of infectious disease, “each infected device is looking for other devices to compromise.”

The article goes on to discuss recent events that took down the internet this year.

We continue to advise our clients to be vigilant about their security products and especially the many internet controlled door locks currently on the market. 

More specifically we are advising consumers to prefer to use mechanically keyed products that do not connect to the internet, to adequately protect their properties.

While we see and agree, that "connected" products can help to offer some access control parameters, we feel that, at this time, the security protocols incorporated in many of the "cheaper" consumer products, are not up to speed and security and could potentially be an easily bypassed issue that will affect the security of your home or office.

Being in the lock and security product industry for the last 35 years and having plied the trade on 4 continents, we continue to advise our clients that mechanical "keyed" operated security products offer substantially better security than many of the current breed of IoT products coming to market.

Even with the many brands of digital code locks currently available, many consumers fail to understand that sharing of access codes presents a greater security issue than having and using a mechanical key. A code once shared, means that you really do not know how many different people have access to your property. Unlike the mechanical key, which requires to be duplicated, a code does not. Sure, you can just change the code, but how is that different from rekeying a lock cylinder?

The difference is that locksmiths have been providing high-security restricted key systems for many years that almost completely prevent unauthorised duplication while providing better quality - higher security components to thwart picking or bumping or other non destructive methods of entry.

Bearing in mind that the cost for a mechanical key operated security product is substantially competitively priced, compared to 'digital' code locks, you can be virtually assured that your property is significantly more secure, while still being affordable.

The video above describes what a bot is and why they are becoming increasingly troublesome to our society today.

Contact your local professional locksmith for competitive options that can increase your properties security at minimal cost.

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