This is alarming information. It make you wonder how much information we can really control this day and age. With everything moving beyond the PC it changes the game entirely.
This also shows that once something is cracked, the floodgates are opened to anyone with the time and energy to screw around with other people's systems. Imagine what that teenager would be able to do in a legitimate job? He would be a talented employee.
You only need one genius to break into sophisticated security. After that, the exploit gets out -- often, as we've seen here, with a YouTube instructional video -- and any chump or schoolkid can do it.
This NOT an urban myth story. The events happend recently and within my company, a real hack .. in real time .. by a schoolkid.
Passwords were changed from shipping default, gateway IP modified from standard shipping settings, real security enabled. The whole works. Editorial license prevented me from including a video showing the use of the exploits in real time.
Small networks are vulnerable, very open to attack. My post is about education, not a scare tactic.
This reminds us the fact that all the encryptions are breakable. It just takes more time if you use latest patch and/or use a long key. Layer approach is always better such as put another firewall as an interior defense, or as simple as turning the machine off when you do not use it.
In Brevard County, Florida, one family's life was, almost literally, torn apart when police stormed their home after (I don't recall all the details) they became suspicious that someone in the house was downloading child pornography. After digging into all the home's computers -- and you can imagine how much fun that must have been -- law enforcement determined the porn was actually allegedly being downloaded by a neighbor who was using their wifi connection. So after being accused and suspected by police, after having all their personal information scrutinized and being, no doubt, shunned by neighbors and friends, they were found innocent of this horrendous crime. But it must have been an awful few days.
Sam, you raise an interesting point about those times when performance is compromised. I always and immediately blame my local cable provider for the usual "technical difficulties." They always tell me to turn the router off/on. In fact, I don't bother calling them any more, but just push the power button on those occasions. We do have a pretty complex password but it does make you wonder. Certainly seems a good market for solution providers or other third-party security firms to address if they can figure out a cost-effective way to serve such a far-flung market.
Wow Micheal that is just scary, I work from home all the time and I often wonder why my bandwidth has strnge issues at times now that you have sufficently scared me I will get a network security friend of mine in ASAP to check and add additional security. I am in the process of moving all to the cloud but still very very scary stuff thanks for bringing it to light!
The hacker underbelly is scary. I recall reading about websites where tens of thousands of credit card numbers are sold, along with Social Security numbers, hacks, and other information that criminals need/want in order to steal from others. Because these sites are so cleverly concealed and often hosted offshore, it's next-to-impossible for American or European law enforcement to do much about them.
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