Protect your IoT devices

The Internet of Things is a big, juicy target for criminals. — Dreamstime/TNS

As more and more devices connect to the Internet, the risk of them being targeted by criminals is also increasing.

Internet-connected devices are nearly ubiquitous, with ­computer circuitry now found in a variety of common appliances. They can include security cameras, DVRs, printers, cars, baby monitors, and refrigerators – even “smart” lightbulbs and clothing. Collectively those devices are called the Internet of Things.

The Internet of Things is a big, juicy target for criminals. Up to a million devices were hijacked to create the Mirai botnet which was used to extort companies and bring a university computer system in New Jersey to its knees. The botnet was later exploited to bring down vast swaths of the Internet in a ­sustained attack on Oct 21, 2016.

Paras Jha, a former Rutgers University student, pleaded guilty Dec 8 with two other men who admitted they wrote the Mirai code. Named after an obscure anime film character, Mirai scoured the Internet for unsecured devices and easily found them.

Once discovered, the Internet of Things devices were hijacked by the Mirai malware and became part of a botnet that launched assaults on Internet service providers and scores of websites. Jha, 21, allegedly monetised the botnet by demanding ransom to call off the attacks, using it to inflate the number of advertising clicks on websites, and renting it out to other hackers for their own nefarious ends.

The attacks on Rutgers’ computer system may have cost the school US$9mil (RM36.70mil), prosecutors said. Rutgers officials told NJ.com the cost of enhancing security was one of the reasons the school hiked tuition in 2016.

When Jha discovered federal investigators were closing in, he released the Mirai source code to the world to cover his tracks. The code is still circulating online and causing damage, according to Brian Krebs, of KrebsOnSecurity.com.

Krebs advises taking these precautions to keep your Internet of Things devices protected:

– Avoid connecting your devices directly to the Internet.

– Change the default credentials to a complex password that only you will know and can remember. – Check the defaults, and make sure things like UPnP (Universal Plug and Play – which can easily poke holes in your fire wall without you knowing it) are disabled.

– Avoid Internet of Things devices that advertise built-in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) capabilities. P2P Internet of things devices are notoriously difficult to secure, and research repeatedly has shown that they can be reachable even through a fire wall remotely over the internet. That’s because they’re configured to continuously find ways to connect to a global, shared network so that people can access them remotely.

– When it comes to Internet of things devices, cheaper is definitely not better. There is no direct correlation between price and security, but history has shown that less expensive devices tend to have the most vulnerabilities.

The US Department of Justice also offers these tips to protect Internet-connected devices.

– Do your research. Consider the security features of your Internet of things devices before buying. If the device uses a password, make sure it allows you to change it.

– Update firmware when available. Internet of Things devices can be susceptible if not regularly patched. Only install updates from known and reputable sites.

– Disconnect your insecure Internet of Things devices. Outdated security? Can’t update passwords? Then unplug it. – Turn off Internet of Things devices when not in use, or periodically if otherwise always on. Malware is stored in memory and can often be erased by turning the device off and back on.

– Protect routers and WiFi networks. Use your router’s built-in fire wall, confirm it’s enabled.

– Avoid using public WiFi to check Internet of things devices from a smartphone.

– Use antivirus and intrusion-detection products.

– Ask for help, or hire help, if you can’t figure out fire walls or how to “segment” your network of Internet of things devices.

Some free online resources can help determine whether your devices are susceptible to being accessed by Mirai or other malware. Be cautious and use only well-known sources.

If you suspect your Internet of things device is infected, turn it off and on again to purge the device’s memory. Change the password. — The Philadelphia Inquirer/Tribune News Services

Source: By Sam Wood Tech News


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New year,new beginnings

2013 the year of Internet innovation

A man uses his smartphone to take a picture of a person wearing a mask of former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden during a protest in Berlin, July 4, 2013.

As the year comes to a close, we need to reflect on what are the most important things that have affected our lives in 2013.

The Internet continues to transform our world. The most significant Internet event in 2013 was not the listing of Facebook, which priced the company at $104 billion (almost Bt3.4 trillion), but Edward Snowden's July revelations of Internet surveillance, which revealed that Big Brother, friend or foe, is really watching. Since my smartphone is smart enough to track me even in the toilet, there is really no privacy left in this world.

On the plus side, Singles Day - November 11 - garnered 35 billion yuan (Bt187 billion) in online sales on one day in China. Since China already accounts for one-third of the smartphones in the world, and they can make and sell smartphones at one-third the price of Apple or Samsung, it is not surprising that e-commerce in the Middle Kingdom is set to overtake even the US in volume next year.

Online business is here to stay.

What the combination of the Internet and smartphone means is that a person in the remotest part of Indonesia can sell his or her product to buyers worldwide, and collect over the smartphone, which was impossible to imagine even 20 years ago.

Amazing also are the apps downloaded in their millions to maximise personal efficiency. Ease of personal communication, meanwhile, has been taken to a new level with apps like WeChat. Such free Internet services are rising so fast that even revenue from SMS text messages is slowing down.

On the other side, after Snowden, what must consider the proper role of the government in the Internet and how it should behave to encourage Web innovation and growth?

Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz was one of the first to tackle the subject, in "The Role of Government in a Digital Age" (2000), with Peter and Jonathan Orzag. Their report recommended 12 principles. The first three cover the state's proper role in the affairs of the Internet:

1. Provide public data and information.

2. Improve efficient government services.

3. Support basic research.

The next six principles are areas where the government should exercise caution. These include:

4. Adding specialised value to public data and information.

5. Providing private goods only under limited circumstances.

6. Providing services online where private services are more efficient.

7. Ensuring that mechanisms exist to protect privacy, security, and consumer protection online.

8. Promoting network externalities only with great deliberation and care.

9. Maintaining proprietary information or exercising rights under patents or copyright.

The report also signalled "red light" areas of state intervention in the Internet:

10. Governments should exercise substantial caution in entering markets in which private sector firms are active

11. Governments (including government corporations) should generally not aim to maximise net revenues or take action that would reduce competition.

12. Government should only be allowed to provide goods or services for which appropriate privacy and conflict-of-interest protections have been erected.

The Stiglitz-Orzag report was written for the US market, but the general principles are useful guides for all states. The trouble is that Snowden showed that the US government might have failed to follow some of these guidelines. We do know that governments are becoming increasingly intrusive on the Internet, and that such intrusion inhibits competition and innovation.

Because the Internet is evolving very fast, the role of government in Web affairs also needs to evolve. Businesses are becoming even more service and information-oriented, with increasing numbers going digital and in the "Cloud". This means that governments are struggling with three major issues: protecting private privacy, ensuring a level playing field in competition, and taxing online activities.

Governments must also sort out jurisdictional duties and powers, because the Cloud is global, and taxation and regulation is not only national, but departmental. It is as if each small part of the bureaucracy is trying to regulate the whole Cloud. We can all touch and feel its power, but there is no overall central authority that can control the Cloud.

An island nation in the Pacific might pass a law on the Cloud, but could it enforce it?

Individual privacy is being threatened by the practice of hacking, and the biggest hackers are not bedroom-bound nerds, but governments everywhere.

The second problem of a level playing field is a serious one. If Google has maps and can monitor everything I do through my smartphone, does that information belong to Google or to me? If it belongs to the large platforms, does that not confer a huge informational advantage on them? How can governments ensure that there is a level playing field between these massive online platforms and the small businesses that have no such information or may have to pay the platform for it?

The third area is taxation. Online commerce has escaped the tax radar because it is new. In contrast, bricks-and-mortar shops have rents, create jobs and pay value-added taxes. If everything moves online, the government loses the ability to tax, and bricks-and-mortar retail shops will complain they are losing out to larger and larger platforms. Bookshops around the world are closing in droves now that everyone can order through Amazon.

There are no easy answers to these tough questions. The interdependent and interconnected nature of the Internet means that regulatory or government action in one part may affect the system as a whole. In other words, government action or non-action creates a shadow system - the business moves offline, offshore or into cyberspace.

What we need is better transparency, better education, wider access and also some key principles of fair competition that should be enforced for online business to innovate.

Finally, a year-end reminder: use your smartphone in the toilet, and someone (not Snowden) can hear you flush. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all.

Contributed by Andrew Sheng, President of the Fung Global Institute.

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Youth addicted to computer games died in front of his computer!

 

Ong Yee Haw, 23, (pic) was found slumped over the keyboard in front of his computer monitor in a room by his uncle at about 4pm.

 GEORGE TOWN: A youth addicted to computer games died of a heart attack at his home in Bandar Baru Air Hitam here after apparently playing continuously for over 15 hours at a cybercafe nearby. 

He was said to have been at the cybercafe from 10pm on Sunday until 1pm the next day before returning home to his own computer.

However, it was not known which computer game Ong had been playing before his death.

His mother Chew Qun Juan, 62, said her only son had been addicted to computer games ever since he stopped working at a restaurant five months ago following a motorcycle accident.

“He injured his right hand and had to stop working. I constantly told him not to spend too much time on computer games but he never listened.

“I single-handedly raised him after my husband died of cardiac arrest 15 years ago. Words cannot describe my sadness now. I only hope that others, who are also addicted to computer games, will learn something from this.

“I hope this will not happen to anyone else. My son was still so young,” she said in between tears when met at the Penang Hospital mortuary yesterday.

A post-mortem report, she said, confirmed that Ong died of a heart attack.

Ong was cremated at the Batu Gantung crematorium yesterday afternoon. The case has been classified as sudden death.

On Dec 27 last year, a 35-year-old broker was found dead inside his home, supposedly after playing video games.

A video game console was found in front of Liu Peng Han’s body. When his body was discovered by his uncle, Liu was lying on the sofa in the living room.

There had also been several media reports of deaths due to computer addiction in China, South Korea, Vietnam and the United States.

It was reported that in 2005, a man in South Korea went into cardiac arrest and died after playing StarCraft almost continuously for 50 hours. Two years later, a 30-year-old man in Guangzhou died after playing video games continuously for three days.

Contributed by Winnie Yeoh The Star/Asia News Network

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China's Lenovo overtakes HP as global No 1 PC maker

PALO ALTO (CBS/AP) – Lenovo beat out rival Hewlett-Packard to become the No. 1 PC maker by a narrow margin, according to both firms.

In the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) region overall PC shipments in the region fell slightly below forecast due to China. Weak sell-in to China during April and May constrained shipments. Although June shipments in China improved, expectations for the third quarter are being lowered to reflect remaining inventory as well as economic pressures.

Worldwide shipments of personal computers fell 11 percent in the April-June period, according to data from research firms Gartner and IDC, as people continued to migrate to tablets and other mobile devices.

Gartner Inc. said Wednesday that the PC industry is now experiencing the longest decline in its history, as shipments dropped for the fifth consecutive quarter. Computer makers shipped 76 million PCs in the April-June period, down from 85 million in the same  three months of 2012, according to Gartner.

International Data Corp., which uses slightly different methodology, essentially came to the same conclusion, though it noted that the decline was slightly smaller than expected.

“With second quarter growth so close to forecast, we are still looking for some improvement in growth during the second half of the year,” said Jay Chou, senior analyst at IDC, in a statement. “Slower growth in Europe and China reflect the risks, while the improved U.S. outlook reflects potential improvement.”

Gartner’s Mikako Kitagawa said inexpensive tablets are displacing low-end computers in “mature” markets such as the United States. In emerging markets like China, meanwhile “inexpensive tablets have become the first computing device for many people, who at best are deferring the purchase of a PC. This is also accounting for the collapse of the mini notebook market,” she added.

IDC said the numbers “reflect a market that is still struggling with the transition to touch-based systems running Windows 8.”  Microsoft Corp.’s latest operating system launched in October and sales have disappointed analysts. But Kitagawa said that while “Windows 8 has been blamed by some as the reason for the PC market’s decline, we believe this is unfounded as it does not explain the sustained decline in PC shipments.”  - CBS, AP, AFP

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