Cybergeddon!

Week 4

I had the privilege a little over a year ago to watch the series Cybergeddon, now on DVD as a move.  I was absolutely in love with it so bought it when it came out on DVD and watched it just the other night, again.  The plot of the movie is about a Cyber FBI agent that is being framed for unleashing a virus on a water plant, that ends up getting unleashed on the entire Internet.  The "bad guy" uses bots to unleash the virus across the Internet thus ending up taking control of 1 billion devices.  With a click of a button, the infrastructure of the U.S. will come crashing down.  It makes you ponder if this can actually happen.

The thing you have to realize is how fake the movie actually is.  Just with a few clicks here and a few clicks there and some typing here and typing there, the "bad guy" is able to defend against the "good guys" network shut downs and buffer overflows and also hack into seriously secured networks.  It takes much more than a few words and clicks to hack into systems as it is portrayed in the movie.  You have to realize, while watching the movie, that for suspense reasons and the time it actually takes to get into systems, things are cut.  That is the case with this movie.  It also shows how the "bad guy" supposedly gets into the Cyber FBI site by just scanning for open ports.  Chances are, in real life, the FBI Cyber Crime Lab doesn't have any open ports.

When it comes to taking over 1 billion devices, to be honest with you, it is possible.  With the new "Internet of Things" going on, this could eventually happen.  You have to look at what is all connected and what will be connected in the future.  Soon, your refrigerator will be able to talk to your computer, your furniture will be able to learn your sitting habits and conform to you body, and devices that help you live will be attached to your body relaying information to your computer.  To be quite honest, it is a scary situation if you think about it.  With some smart hacking, a "bad guy" could hack into the Internet of Things and start to take control of one device at a time.  Soon enough, they could have control of 1 billion devices.

The sad thing is that this has more of a chance at happening now than it did 5 years ago.  Everyone is getting contempt with using the Internet and computers for everything they do.  Many do not use the proper passwords or user IDs to help keep their own system secure.  Mobile devices can attach themselves to any wireless network at any given time.  If the public is not educated on how serious this is, Cybergeddon is closer than it is farther away.  People need to change their tune about how they play around in the Internet of Things before it is too late.

Internet of Things:
http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240212690/Internet-at-risk-of-cybergeddon-says-WEF

Movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2189240/