Proof? This is just some random person claiming it's not true but they link to an article which explicitly states that it is in fact true. Am I missing something?
Kevin Beaumont is not exactly a random person in this instance, he's a pretty experienced writer on cybersecurity.
He elaborates farther down the thread:
> A botnet of 3 million toothbrushes would be twice the size on Mirai's various botnets put together, and a MAJOR infosec event. The person they were interviewing has only worked there about a year, and Fortigate staff don't appear to know about this botnet.
Edit to add:
Imagine you read on TechMeme that room-temperature superconductors are now confirmed to exist. But when you trace the story back, the original citation is an article in the Tucson Regional Business Journal about how scientific research benefits innovation. Would you think "wow, big scoop for the TRBJ!" Or something more like, "I bet that business reporter misunderstood something they heard."
I believe the Mastodon OP mistranslated the German article, which states:
> Das Beispiel, das wie ein Hollywood-Szenario daherkommt, hat sich wirklich so zugetragen.
Correct translation:
> This example, which seems like a Hollywood scenario, actually happened.
But as you can see, if you miss the last part, it's easy to get the translation wrong.
(Interestingly, the Swiss article doesn't directly quote Fortinet as a source, but as an expert opinion. Maybe something was lost in translation there when the story went viral?)
I use a couple of TP-Link smart power plugs and one of them occasionally wants to access the internet to get the time from an NTP server. Since I block all their internet access this one goes crazy and brings my DNS server (custom written in Python) down to a halt. Just blocking him in the firewall of the AP would probably also not make him behave and he'd still pollute the RF spectrum. Happens rarely, though. Kicking him off of the WiFi and letting him reconnect makes him behave again.
snowwrestler|2 years ago
He elaborates farther down the thread:
> A botnet of 3 million toothbrushes would be twice the size on Mirai's various botnets put together, and a MAJOR infosec event. The person they were interviewing has only worked there about a year, and Fortigate staff don't appear to know about this botnet.
Edit to add:
Imagine you read on TechMeme that room-temperature superconductors are now confirmed to exist. But when you trace the story back, the original citation is an article in the Tucson Regional Business Journal about how scientific research benefits innovation. Would you think "wow, big scoop for the TRBJ!" Or something more like, "I bet that business reporter misunderstood something they heard."
ChrisMarshallNY|2 years ago
This was a simple letter to the editor, written by a doctor, that became the driving force behind Oxycontin marketing.
[0] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/06/nejm-lett...
n2d4|2 years ago
> Das Beispiel, das wie ein Hollywood-Szenario daherkommt, hat sich wirklich so zugetragen.
Correct translation:
> This example, which seems like a Hollywood scenario, actually happened.
But as you can see, if you miss the last part, it's easy to get the translation wrong.
(Interestingly, the Swiss article doesn't directly quote Fortinet as a source, but as an expert opinion. Maybe something was lost in translation there when the story went viral?)
croes|2 years ago
Million dollar damage because a Swiss site wasn't reachable for 4 hours?
I doubt that.
parl_match|2 years ago
If this is real, the article is beyond useless in informing people of what has happened and how it's happened.
qwertox|2 years ago
unknown|2 years ago
[deleted]
croes|2 years ago
Highly suspicious and now confirmed it didn't happen.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39300373
croes|2 years ago
Highly unlikely.