2017 and the Internet: our predictions
An abbreviated version of this post originally appeared on TechCrunch
Looking back over 2016, we saw the good and bad that comes with widespread use and abuse of the Internet.
In both Gabon and Gambia, Internet connectivity was disrupted during elections. The contested election in Gambia started with an Internet blackout that lasted a short time. In Gabon, the Internet shutdown lasted for days. Even as we write this countries like DR Congo are discussing blocking specific Internet services, clearly forgetting the lessons learned in these other countries.
CC BY 2.0 image by Aniket Thakur
DDoS attacks continued throughout the year, hitting websites big and small. Back in March, we wrote about 400 Gbps attacks that were happening over the weekend, and then in December, it looked like attackers were treating attacks as a job to be performed from 9 to 5.
In addition to real DDoS, there were also empty threats from a group calling itself Armada Collective and demanding Bitcoin for sites and APIs to stay online. Another group popped up to copycat the same modus-operandi.
The Internet of Things became what many had warned it would become: an army of devices used for attacks. A botnet Continue reading