Tag Archive for IP address

| May 10, 2018
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Riskiest ZIP Codes

Riskiest ZIP CodesCredit rating firm Experian recently published a list of the top 100 riskiest shipping ZIP codes for 2017. In the list, U.S. ZIP codes were rated on the number of attempted fraudulent e-commerce transactions against the population of overall e-commerce orders for the ZIP codes.

Experian’s analysis of fraudulent transactions says international IP addresses affect the overall riskiness of a transaction. e-Commerce transactions from international IP addresses are much riskier than average—6.7x riskier from a shipping perspective. Additionally, Experian’s analysis shows that traffic coming from a proxy server—which could originate from domestic and international IP addresses — is 74 times riskier
then the average transaction.

The riskiest ZIP code for e-commerce fraud in 2017 was 97079 in Beaverton, Oregon according to Experian. In fact, Oregon had nearly half of the top 25 riskiest ZIP codes in 2017. The areas in and around Portland OR occupied 10 of the top 25 spots for riskiest e-commerce transactions. Beaverton’s highest risk international IP county is China.

The Miami Florida area put the sunshine state at #2 in the top 25 with nearly a quarter of the riskiest ZIP codes. Miami had 6 of the top 25 slots for the next most risky ZIP Codes for e-commerce firms. The riskiest Miami ZIP code is 33122. Miami’s highest risk international IP county is Venezuela.

The riskiest Miami zip code is 33122.

South El Monte, California ZIP code 91733 is the third riskiest ZIP code on the Experian list for e-commerce firms to ship to. Experian says that 91733’s highest risk international IP countries are Taiwan and Hong Kong.

South El Monte, Califronia zip code 91733 is the third riskiest zip code

The riskiest Michigan ZIP code is 48204 in Detroit, which ranked 32nd on the list and is only 15% of the risk of Beaverton OR.

The riskiest Michigan Zip code is 48204 in Detroit

Other Michigan ZIP Codes on the top 100 list are:

RankCityStateZip CodeFraud Attack Rate
64DetroitMI48227276.6
68DetroitMI
48206270.3
74DetroitMI48228262.4

The top 25 riskiest ZIP Codes according to Experian. Fraud attack rates show the attempted fraudulent e-commerce transactions against the population of overall e-commerce orders.

RankCityStateZip CodeFraud attack rates
1Beaverton OR970792741.9
2Miami FL331221935.1
3South El MonteCA917331473.5
4Portland OR972511257.6
5Portland OR972501178.6
6Miami FL331661155.1
7Portland OR972521059.4
8Miami FL331981010.6
9Miami FL33195921.7
10Miami FL33192769.1
11Portland OR97253726.2
12Portland OR97230676
13Portland OR97217635.8
14Minden NV89423629.2
15HoustonTX77072625.4
16Portland OR97233623.4
17Wilmington DE19801584.6
18Portland OR97218562.1
19Des Moines IA50314544.1
20Chicago IL60621539.8
21Portland OR97203535.6
22Miami FL33191518.7
23Hillsboro OR97124505.3
24Portland OR97254502.5
25Manchester NH3101490.4

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The increase in e-commerce fraud attacks should not surprise anyone. The growth of online information and the continuing tsunami of data breaches has put over 9.7 billion data records on the dark web. The plethora of stolen PII enables criminals to open fraudulent accounts, take over legitimate accounts and submit fraudulent transactions.

Another reason for the increase in online fraud activity is automation. In the past, criminals needed to do something, but they can now attack by simply downloading a file and automating the submission of thousands of applications or transactions
simultaneously.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| July 9, 2016
Comments Off on Security Cam Concerns in Ann Arbor

Security Cam Concerns in Ann Arbor

Security Cam Concerns in Ann ArborNext time you are in Ann Arbor to get a bite to eat at Zingerman’s or attend a U of M football game at Michigan stadium someone may be watching you. NetworkWorld, says Ann Arbor is one of the top U.S. cities with the most unsecured security cameras. In fact, Ann Arbor ranks seventh nationally.

The report’s author, security firm Protection 1, analyzed the data from Insecam. Inseacam identifies open security cameras and Protection 1 estimates there are over 11,000 open security cameras on the Internet in the U.S. Protection 1 identified the cities with the most cameras that can be viewed by anyone online. The top 10 cities with unsecured security cameras are:

  1. open security camerasWalnut Creek, CA – 89.69 / 100,000 residents
  2. Richardson, TX – 72.74 / 100,000 residents
  3. Torrance, CA – 72.55 / 100,000 residents
  4. Newark, NJ – 38.07 / 100,000 residents
  5. Rancho Cucamonga, CA – 36.76 / 100,000 residents
  6. Corvallis, OR – 37.98 / 100,000 residents
  7. Ann Arbor, MI – 34.18 / 100,000 residents
  8. Orlando, FL – 34.05 / 100,000 residents
  9. Eau Claire, WI – 22.21 / 100,000 residents
  10. Albany, NY – 20.32 / 100,000 residents

using the manufacturer's default passwordOpen security cameras connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi or a cable. They have no password protection or are using the manufacturer’s default password. Malicious people and governments can record or broadcast our lives from unprotected open security cameras. Open cameras are also vulnerable attacks that can turn them into bots.

From a privacy perspective, the most worrisome finding is that 15% of the open cameras are in Americans’ homes. Anyone can watch these cameras if the default password is not changed to a unique password to lock down the camera.

Besides being spied on from the web, open cameras can be exploited by criminals. Cyber-criminals can force online cameras to attack other things on the Internet as part of a DDoS attack.

distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)A DDoS attack against a jewelry shop website led to the discovery of a CCTV-based botnet. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is one in which a multitude of compromised systems attack a single target, thereby causing a denial of service for users of the targeted system. TargetTech says the flood of incoming messages to the target system essentially forces it to shut down, thereby denying service to the system to legitimate users.

Help Net Security reports that Sucuri researchers discovered the jewelry site was being attacked by a CCTV botnet made up of 25,000+ cameras from around the globe. The website was first attacked by a layer 7 attack (HTTP Flood) at 35,000 HTTP requests per second and then, when those efforts were thwarted, with 50,000 HTTP requests per second.

Sucuri researchers discovered that all the attacking IP addresses had a similar default page with the ‘DVR Components’ title. After digging some more, they found that all these devices are BusyBox based. Busybox is a GNU-based software that aims to be the smallest and simplest correct implementation of the standard Linux command-line tools.

CCTV botnet made up of 25,000+ cameras from around the globeThe compromised CCTV cameras were located around the globe:

  • 24% originated from Taiwan,
  • 12% United States,
  • 9% Indonesia,
  • 8% Mexico,
  • and elsewhere.

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Unless something is done, security flaws, misconfiguration, and ignorance about the dangers of connecting unsecured devices to the IoT will keep these botnets functioning well into the future.

block or absorb malicious trafficTo protect your website from botnets and DDoS, you need to be able to block or absorb malicious traffic. Firms should talk to their hosting provider about DDoS attack protection. Can they route incoming malicious traffic through distributed caching to help filter out malicious traffic — reducing the strain on existing web servers. If not find a reputable third-party service that can help filter out malicious traffic.

DDoS defense services require a paid subscription, but often cost less than scaling up your own server capacity to deal with a DDoS attack.

Arbor Networks is one firm that provides services and devices to defend against DDoS.

Google has launched Project Shield, to use Google’s infrastructure to support free expression online by helping independent sites mitigate DDoS attack traffic.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| November 24, 2015
Comments Off on Television Sells Your Viewing Habits

Television Sells Your Viewing Habits

– Updated 03-26-2017 –  Vizio will pay $2.2 million to the FTC and the state of New Jersey to settle a lawsuit alleging it collected customers’ television-watching habits without their permission.

In addition to the $2.2 million in payments, Vizio will now have to get clear consent from viewers before collecting and sharing data on their viewing habits. It’ll also have to delete all data gathered by these methods before March 1st, 2016 according to the Verge.

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Television Sells Your Viewing HabitsJust in time for the Black Friday consumerism orgy of spending, Help Net Security reports that you are giving away more than cash when you buy a Smart Television from Best Buy or whoever. It turns out that owners of Smart TVs manufactured by California-based consumer electronics company Vizio (VZIO) viewing habits are being tracked and sold to third parties. The Vizio privacy policy says;

Vizio logo… VIZIO will use Viewing Data together with your IP address and other Non-Personal Information in order to inform third party selection and delivery of targeted and re-targeted advertisements … delivered to smartphones, tablets, PCs or other internet-connected devices that share an IP address or other identifier with your Smart TV.

Vizio’s competitors Samsung (005930) and LG Electronics (LGLD) can also track users’ viewing habits via their smart TV offerings, ProPublica‘s Julia Angwin pointed out, but the feature has to be explicitly turned on by the users. The collection of viewing data by Vizio’s Smart TVs is turned on by default, as is the Smart Interactivity feature that manages it.

Data miningAccording to the IEEE, Vizio smart TVs can track data related to whatever TV programming and related commercials you’re watching and link such data with the time, date, channel, and TV service provider. On most of the over 15 million Smart TVs sold, Vizio will also track whether you view TV programs live or later on. Vizio knows what you’re watching even if it’s a DVD being played on a gaming console or a show being watched via cable TV. The identification tracking technology can differentiate between 100 billion data points.

While, in theory, IP addresses are not personal information, they actually can be linked to individuals if there is enough information (specific attributes like age, profession, etc.) tied to it.

Data collectionProPublica‘s Angwin’s sources, tell her that Vizio has been working with data broker Neustar to combine viewing data with this type of information about the user.

Even though users can turn off the spy technology, which will not won’t affect the device’s performance, the problem is that many, many users won’t bother reading the privacy policy or change the default settings once they set up the TV and start using them.

TechHive reports that backlash against intrusive spying has started. Two lawsuits (Reed v. Cognitive Media Network, Inc. (PDF) and David Watts et. al. v Vizio Holdings Inc et. al. (PDF)) have been filed in California against Vizio and their partners about their data collection habits.

The suits accuse Vizio and Cognitive of secretly installing tracking software on the former’s smart TVs in a way that violates various federal and state laws.

Legal systemThe suits allege that Vizio violated the Video Privacy Protection Act. The Video Privacy Protection Act prohibits any company engaged in rental, sale, or delivery of audio-visual content and not necessarily just videotapes from divulging any personally identifiable information about its customer to a third party, except where the customer has clearly consented to such data sharing.

Of course, Vizio has previously argued it’s not a videotape service provider at all, and so this particular law doesn’t apply to it.

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I pointed out as far back as 2011 that Smart TVs are a dumb idea for privacy.

Consumer Reports offers tips on how to stop your Smart TV from spying on you here.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| July 21, 2015
Comments Off on Apple favors IPv6 as IPv4 Dries Up

Apple favors IPv6 as IPv4 Dries Up

Apple favors IPv6 as IPv4 Dries UpThe American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) has reported that the IPv4 well is just about dry in North America. On 01 July 2015, ARIN had to refuse a request for a block of IPv4 addresses. The ARIN statement says that there are still a few IPv4 numbers available in smaller block sizes. But for all intents and purposes, there are no more unassigned public IPv4 addresses. As of July 18, 2015, the ARIN IPv4 Deletion page reports only 335 /24 IPv4 address ranges are available. It is time to start looking at IPv6.

Will have an impact on the large enterprisesThe good news, according to FierceEnterpriseCommunications, is the IPv4 drought isn’t yet affecting most of the internal networks of enterprises. But it’s just a matter of time before it starts to have a greater impact on the largest of enterprises. Microsoft (MSFT), for instance, found it was out of IPv4 addresses a few weeks ago. And for the first time in ARIN’s history, they denied a company that requested a large block of IPv4 addresses. Tom Coffeen, chief IPv6 evangelist at Infoblox, in a statement to FierceEnterpriseCommunications explained:

Though the IPv4 well has run dry and threatens service providers, the sky hasn’t yet landed on enterprise networks … Most enterprises still rely on private IPv4 for their internal networks. The small number of public, routable IPv4 addresses required to connect enterprise networks to the Internet is typically provided by the ISP, making IPv4 much more critical for Internet services providers.

IPv6One company that is reacting to IPv4 scarcity is Apple (AAPL). Apple’s latest operating systems – iOS 9 for iPhones and iPads and OS X El Capitan for Macs are designed to take advantage of IPv6. The new operating systems select the fastest connection with the lowest latency, whether IPv4 or IPv6, using the Happy Eyeballs algorithm, explained David Schinazi, the CoreOS networking engineer at Apple. Devices use the Happy Eyeballs algorithm to decide which protocol to use, as many applications use a “dual-stack” approach to networking, making available both IPv4 and IPv6 connections.

FierceMobileIT says this worked out to be a 50/50 split between IPv4 and iPv6 in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, but for the new OSes, IPv6 will be chosen by the algorithm around 99 percent of the time, according to Apple beta testing. Apple’s Schinazi wrote in a post on the Internet Engineering Task Force mailing list that Apple considers IPv6 mainstream.

IPv6 is now mainstream instead of being an exception, there are less broken IPv6 tunnels, IPv4 carrier-grade NATs [network address translations] are increasing in numbers, and throughput may even be better on average over IPv6

The author reports that testing performed by Apple shows that the new OSes should use IPv6 addresses around 99 percent of the time. Apple operating systems have supported IPv6 by default for Mac users as part of the OS X 10.2 Jaguar release in May 2002.

Mr, Schinazi cautioned that both OSes are in beta so things might change for the final versions. “If this behavior proves successful during the beta period, you should expect more IPv6 traffic from Apple products in the future,” he added.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| January 15, 2015
Comments Off on Who Runs The Internet

Who Runs The Internet

Who Runs The InternetWhile no one “owns” the Internet (for now, despite republican plans) there are a handful of companies that control the Internet. Unless you are a techno-geek, these six organizations that control how the Internet works, most likely fly under your radar.

 

International Telecommunications Union

United Nations International Telecommunications UnionThe first organization that is actively trying to take over the functions of the Internet is the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The ITU in my and many other opinions an outdated, pointless throw-back to the days of the telegraph, with policies to match. I covered the last power grabs by the UN’s ITU here.

Internet Architecture Board

Next is the Internet Architecture Board (AIB). The IAB is the overseer of the technical evolution of the Internet. The IAB supervises the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which oversees the evolution of TCP/IP, and the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), which works on network technology.

Internet Architecture BoardThe IAB declared a major strategic move for the Internet. The Internet Architecture Board is calling for global encryption on the web (which I have covered many times from my Bach Seat) to become the norm across the Internet in a move to lock down the privacy and security of information exchange according to Dark Reading.

Internet Engineering Task Force

Internet Engineering Task Force

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops and promotes voluntary Internet standards. It is most well known for the standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It is an open standards organization, with no formal membership or membership requirements. All participants and managers are volunteers, though their work is usually funded by their employers or sponsors. The IETF is also well-known for its RFCs or Request for Comment documents like RFC RFC 1918 and RFC 873.

Internet Society

Internet SocietyAnother organization that shapes the Intertubes is ISOC. The Internet Society (which I am a member of) was formed in 1992 by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn. ISOC was formed to provide a corporate structure to support the Internet standards development process.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is perhaps the most critical organization that helps run the Internet. ICANN coordinates the distribution of IP addresses and the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS). IP addresses are the numbers that are assigned to every computer on the Net to uniquely identify each device. There are two types of IP addresses, IPv4 and IPv6. The web has run out of IPv4 addresses (which I covered here and here) and is very slowly being replaced with IPv6 addresses. ICANN doles out these addresses.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and NumbersICANN also manages the Domain Naming System (DNS) on the web that converts IP addresses to names. DNS makes it possible to remember www.google.com, which is easy for humans to remember instead of remembering https://web.archive.org/web/20150507211330/http://74.125.224.72/, which is easy for computers to deal with, to get to Google.

The U.S. government funds ICANN. They Feds have gotten heat from around the globe after Eric Snowden’s revaluations about global spying operations. The role of ICANN is changing.

Internet Service Providers

on rampThe only group that makes money on the Internet but does not help run the Internet (yet) are the Internet Service Providers (ISP). ISP’s control nearly everyone accesses it. The gatekeepers to the web are ATT (T), Comcast (CMCSA), Charter (CHTR) and Time Warner Cable (TWC) are the biggest names of ISP’s. ISP’s “perform” two key functions. First, they provide last-mile connections, that is the connection to your home or business to their offices, which we all over-pay for. Next, they provide back-haul or backbone services that move your email across the town or across the globe. The ISP’s also make money on these ISP-ISP connections.

Right now the FCC is considering the future of the Internet during its Net Neutrality decisions. If the ISP’s get their way, it is likely that homes and businesses will be required to pay the ISP’s more money to maintain the crappy service we already get.

 

Six shadowy organizations that run the Internet infographic

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Let’s add this up big business telecom money + millionaire politicians = the 1% screwing the rest of us. Get involved, save the Internet, get in touch with your alleged representatives and tell them NO MORE. 

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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