Smartlabs - Official DDOS Announcement

[Teken]

As many of you may be aware there was yet again another DDOS attack on a major DNS provider. Below is the official reply from Isaac from Insteon on what products / services are impacted by such.

 

http://forum.insteon.com/forum/main-category/announcements/89476-recent-hub-account-outages-caused-by-ddos-attacks-against-dyn

 

 

 

Recent Hub Account Outages Caused by DDoS Attacks Against Dyn

Today, 11:19 AM

 

As you're probably aware by now, last Friday there were multiple large DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks against Dyn, a major DNS provider. (DNS is an internet service that translates friendly website names like Insteon.com into an internet address that your browser or connected device can use.) The goal of a DDoS attack is to take websites offline, not an attempt to attack or capture data stored on those systems. The attacks caused many websites, large and small, to become inaccessible for several hours throughout the day. The services that Insteon Hubs use for communication were impacted while our service providers worked to restore service.

Insteon products, including Insteon Hubs and IP cameras, are not vulnerable to the type of attack that caused Friday's outages.

Dyn's preliminary findings on the attacks indicate broadly that IoT (Internet of Things) devices involved in the attack were compromised by the Mirai malware, but they didn't indicate which types of IoT devices were involved or how they were compromised. Additional information on the attacks from multiple security researchers indicates that it was primarily home routers and CCTV systems (including both cameras and DVRs) running insecure servers that had default usernames and passwords left in place, or with hard-coded passwords that users cannot change. Some security researchers have identified a small number of manufacturers that appear to have affected products; none of these products are part of the Insteon product line.

The integrity and security of the Insteon ecosystem, both on our servers and in your home, are a top priority for us. We will continue to work closely with our service providers and factories to make sure that our products remain safe.

 

[KeviNH]

Not a bad explanation of the problem.

 

The services that Insteon Hubs use for communication were impacted while our service providers worked to restore service.

Another strike against cloud-tethered services, especially for HA.   

 

Your Insteon Hub could be up, the Smartlabs server could be up, but both are useless when a relatively minor third party service is degraded by anonymous attackers.   Neither of you are the real target of the attack, just collateral damage.

[Teken]

Not a bad explanation of the problem.

 

Another strike against cloud-tethered services, especially for HA.   

 

Your Insteon Hub could be up, the Smartlabs server could be up, but both are useless when a relatively minor third party service is degraded by anonymous attackers.   Neither of you are the real target of the attack, just collateral damage.

 

That is so spot on . . .

[MWareman]

Yep.

 

The company I work for, I'm instrumental in our DNS system and hosting. Our site stayed online...

 

There is *plenty* a hosting company can do to avoid this. If they are hosting a cloud service that many rely on and didn't take basic mitigations (like redundant providers) then shame on them. Makes me glad I don't use than..