![\"22internet-3-master768\"](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/22internet-3-master768.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Major websites were inaccessible to people across wide swaths of the United States on Friday after a company that manages crucial parts of the internet\u2019s infrastructure said it was under attack.<\/p>\n
Users reported sporadic problems reaching several websites, including Twitter<\/a>, Netflix<\/a>, Spotify, Airbnb, Reddit, Etsy, SoundCloud and The New York Times.<\/p>\n The company, Dyn, whose servers monitor and reroute internet traffic, said it began experiencing what security experts called a distributed denial-of-service attack just after 7 a.m. Reports that many sites were inaccessible started on the East Coast, but spread westward in three waves as the day wore on and into the evening.<\/p>\n And in a troubling development, the attack appears to have relied on hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices like cameras, baby monitors and home routers that have been infected \u2014 without their owners\u2019 knowledge \u2014 with software that allows hackers to command them to flood a target with overwhelming traffic.<\/p>\n A spokeswoman said the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security were looking into the incident and all potential causes, including criminal activity and a nation-state attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Kyle York, Dyn\u2019s chief strategist, said his company and others that host the core parts of the internet\u2019s infrastructure were targets for a growing number of more powerful attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe number and types of attacks, the duration of attacks and the complexity of these attacks are all on the rise,\u201d Mr. York said.<\/p>\n Security researchers have long warned that the increasing number of devices being hooked up to the internet, the so-called Internet of Things, would present an enormous security issue. And the assault on Friday, security researchers say, is only a glimpse of how those devices can be used for online attacks.<\/p>\n Dyn, based in Manchester, N.H., said it had fended off the assault by 9:30 a.m. But by 11:52 a.m., Dyn said<\/a> it was again under attack. After fending off the second wave of attacks, Dyn said at 5 p.m. that it was again facing a flood of traffic.<\/p>\n A global event is affecting an upstream DNS provider. GitHub services may be intermittently available at this time.<\/p>\n — GitHub Status (@githubstatus) October 21, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n