White House Taking Steps In Wake Of Friday’s Web Hack

The White House earlier this week sought to calm Americans who were worried about last week’s cyberattack that took down Twitter, Spotify, Netflix and a host of other websites, saying it is taking steps to counter the attacks.

According to a report by Fortune, The Department of Homeland Security said it hosted a conference call with 18 major communication service providers after the attack started and is developing a new set of “strategic principles” for securing internet-connected devices.

DHS said its National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center was working alongside companies, law enforcement and researchers to contend with the attacks that happened due to the expanding number of devices that can talk to the internet. The devices include webcams, appliances and even toys. Most of them have little in terms of security, making hacks that much easier. According to Fortune, several networks of compromised machines were programmed to attack big web infrastructure company Dyn last week, Dyn officials and security researchers said.

Reuters reported Hangzhou Xiongmai Technology, the Chinese manufacturer of webcams linked to the huge cyberattack in the U.S., is gearing up to recall the devices. According to a report, the recall could include up to 10,000 of the devices that were compromised. Reuters noted security researchers discovered the webcams had been targeted in the attack. The report noted the attack on Friday (Oct. 21) raised concerns among security experts because it showed a new type of the threat rooted in devices that are internet-enabled but don’t have a lot of security built into them. Hackers were able to use hundreds of thousands of the devices to overwhelm a target with so much traffic the site couldn’t stay up and running.