Dangers in the Age of Technology

Good evening and welcome to The Magical Mystery Blog.

I apologize for last night’s lack of a blog entry. My Internet connection was shaky and wouldn't allow me to stay on for long, which greatly interrupted my research for my entry. Anyway, here’s this week’s first blog entry.

Folks, there is nothing magical or mysterious about tonight’s blog entry. Tonight this entry is rather concerning and disturbing, just like a pulled fire alarm. Nowadays, there are people who can hack into anything. Usually they target various accounts, but now it seems the stakes have risen and now they cause security breaches in various stores such as Michael’s and Target. However, one hacker in Cincinnati decided to invade something far more precious than chain stores or bank accounts. Rather, he hacked a baby monitor and broke the peacefulness of a quiet evening.

A few days ago in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Schreks were awakened by the sound of a stranger yelling obscenities at their sleeping infant. When they entered the room, it appeared their Foscam baby camera had a mind of its own, swiveling in the direction of the terrified baby. In reality, the intruder had hacked the monitor and controlled it to his pleasure. The Schreks immediately unplugged the camera to get the stranger out of their child’s room. By doing so, they lost all IP addresses including the intruder’s; meaning that they lost a dire piece of evidence that could have helped the police catch the criminal.

The situation is terrifying as is: a stranger staring and screaming at an infant through a baby monitor. But what makes it even more horrifying is the fact that an intruder hacked into something no one expected. As mentioned before, stores, accounts, and even web cams are prime targets for hackers.  But now this event makes us question: what else can these dangerously brilliant minds hack into?

We live in the age of technology, where so many gadgets depend on the Internet to carry out productive tasks. In this new era, most things that weren’t hooked up to the Internet before (video game consoles, toilet lids, refrigerators, and even homes) can now be hacked.  Heartbleed in particular, has not only targeted laptops and computers, but cell phones as well.  This virus now gives hackers the power of exploitation, to which they can harness to attack various Internet based devices, and other items. Hackers have also used Heartbleed and possibly other viruses, to hack into Internet routers. Even Internet Explorer has a newly discovered vulnerability, which could lead to more hackers succeeding at their attacks.

Almost every day we are encouraged to change our passwords, run virus scans daily, and update our systems. For now, these precautions protect us, but will there be a day when nothing can save us from hackers?

Feel free to comment and reblog, and as always, feedback and followers are welcomed.