I N 2016 A group led by a 20-year-old student in New Jersey hacked into hundreds of thousands of “internet-of-things” ( IoT ) devices. It was not hard work: the devices, mostly CCTV cameras, had default passwords like “password” or “12345”. What’s more, even if a diligent operator of those devices had noticed this, the way the machines were configured meant that the default password couldn’t be changed. The hackers then diverted the flow of information from the devices to a company called Dyn, which played a key role in moving data around the internet. This “denial-of-service” attack clogged Dyn up and, for a day, users across America and Europe struggled to connect to the likes of Amazon, Twitter and Reddit. It was one of the biggest disruptions in internet history.
2016年，在新泽西州一名20岁的学生领导的小组被黑客入侵了数十万个“ The-Internet”（IoT）设备。这不是艰苦的工作：这些设备（主要是CCTV摄像机）具有默认的密码，例如“密码”或“ 12345”。更重要的是，即使这些设备的勤奋操作员注意到了这一点，也配置了机器的方式，意味着无法更改默认密码。然后，黑客将信息流从设备转移到了一个名为DYN的公司，该公司在围绕Internet的数据中发挥了关键作用。这种“拒绝服务”攻击堵塞了Dyn的袭击，在一天中，美国和欧洲的用户努力与亚马逊，Twitter和Reddit等人建立联系。这是互联网历史上最大的中断之一。
