Possible Vendetta Behind the East Coast Web Slowdown

For a long time, I've wondered what would finally be the Securitypocalypse, the thing that finally caused our industry as a whole to take security seriously. These IoT DDoS attacks are as good a candidate as any I've seen in a long time. They are fundamentally very difficult to fix in light of the non-updateability of many of these devices, and this is only the beginning, because the IoT has hardly begun to develop. And in the short-term, I'm not sure I see any hope, because the forces that make people throw out cheap devices with broken firmwares with no update capability aren't going away.

If we could somehow mandate that these devices were supported with firmware updates for the indefinite future, that would simply destroy the entire market. And you can't do that, because even the devices created by an entity that no longer exists and didn't sell its IP to anybody else will eventually be enough to do these DDoSes, if they aren't already.

Re: Possible Vendetta Behind the East Coast Web Slowdown

#5

Post by kakarot » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 7:32 PM UTC

Unfortunately, forced firmware updating is an area our governments should not be mandating. That puts unnecessary strain on small companies and creates a larger gap that companies must cross to become commercially viable

Re: Possible Vendetta Behind the East Coast Web Slowdown

#6

Post by trendia » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 7:32 PM UTC

If you are unable to connect because of DNS problems, switch your DNS server to 8.8.8.8 (Google).

Edit: sorry there, this worked for me but apparently it's not guaranteed.

Re: Possible Vendetta Behind the East Coast Web Slowdown

#7

Post by lell » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 7:36 PM UTC

trendia wrote: post #6

If you are unable to connect because of DNS problems, switch your DNS server to 8.8.8.8 (Google). Edit: sorry there, this worked for me but apparently it's not guaranteed.

Didn't help me, heroku is still unreachable with DNS servers changed to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

Re: Possible Vendetta Behind the East Coast Web Slowdown

#8

Post by snovv_crash » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 7:39 PM UTC

kakarot wrote: post #5

Unfortunately, forced firmware updating is an area our governments should not be mandating. That puts unnecessary strain on small companies and creates a larger gap that companies must cross to become commercially viable

Just like with bridges. Getting certification by a professional engineer is just too much barrier to entry for small construction companies.

Edit: forgot the /s

Re: Possible Vendetta Behind the East Coast Web Slowdown

#9

Post by zzleeper » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 7:41 PM UTC

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the BackConnect kid decided to launch the DDoS:

https://www.crunchbase.com/person/marshal-webb

Edit: Maybe this helps with the downvotes:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lulzsec-takes-revenge-on-alleged...

https://www.reddit.com/r/cincinnati/comments/ibwbz/fbi_hacki...

Re: Possible Vendetta Behind the East Coast Web Slowdown

#10

Post by cafard » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 7:41 PM UTC

trendia wrote: post #6

If you are unable to connect because of DNS problems, switch your DNS server to 8.8.8.8 (Google). Edit: sorry there, this worked for me but apparently it's not guaranteed.

That would resolve neither python.org nor cpan.org this morning.