Yo, it wasn’t StarHub’s fault that your interwebz got shut down twice in three days — blame it on your malware-infected computers, webcams, routers and other devices.
The telcom operator confirmed that they, too, fell victim to what the rest of the world experienced during the highly co-ordinated, sophisticated attack carried out by hackers last week. The DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks were carried out by flooding servers with massive traffic from multiple sources, causing things to slow down or halt altogether. The multiple sources? They could very well be one of your many Internet of Things (IoT) devices like CCTV cameras and routers that had been hijacked by the Mirai botnet malware — and in turn, used against servers.
StarHub chief technology officer Mock Pak Lum said it was possible that their customers’ security had been compromised as they did not change their default password. They remain unsure about the intent of the hackers and how serious their attacks may actually be. The next step for StarHub right now is to get their tech teams to visit their subscribers to check if their internet-connected devices were infected.
Half the internet got wiped out by a massive cyber attack last Friday as hackers unleashed a large DDoS attack on popular domain name system (DNS) provider called Dyn. Popular websites hosted by Dyn such as Twitter, Spotify, Reddit, Netflix and more had been affected for a few hours.
No one has claimed responsibility for the hack — but conspiracy theories are abound regarding Russia’s involvement in the attack. This comes after allegations of Russian interference in the American presidential election.
