Highest Rated Comments


Psykechan222 karma

Nothing is truly "non-lethal". At best it's "less-lethal".

Psykechan13 karma

you can put it in a Faraday cage :)

I know this is a joke. I even copied your smiley. But router faraday cages are actually a thing thanks to 5G/WiFi allergy nutcases.

Psykechan8 karma

I love you guys! I was an early adopter of Awesomenauts (Xbox 360) and remember the publisher woes that went with the release of new content, then I purchased the game again on the PC later that year. I'm glad that you are still around making new stuff, unfortunately S&S wasn't my cup of tea. I still recommend it to people though.

Have you ever thought about making an action adventure style game akin to something like Guacamelee or Hollow Knight? I would love to see what you guys could come up with.

Also shoutouts to Joost's devblog which I love reading from time to time.

Psykechan7 karma

Fortunately, SSL (AKA HTTPS or "that lock icon in your address bar) not only prevents your ISP and the government from snooping on your CC/Bank/Whatever, but it prevents your own router from snooping too. That's the good news... and about the only good news of this story.

Once your router is compromised (or hacked, if you prefer), it can be used to compromise other devices. This is what is commonly referred to as a botnet. Not only could it attack other devices on the Internet, but also ones inside your home. IoT devices are notorious for having lax security because they are designed to be mostly protected by the owner's endpoint device (their router). These devices include smart appliances, smart TVs, virtual assistants (Alexa), lights, or even security systems including cameras and locks.

To make matters worse, your router is usually the primary DNS server on your home network. DNS is what translates human readable Internet addresses like "reddit.com" into computer readable addresses like "151.101.129.140". This is why we tell people to always look for that lock icon in the address bar, because it means that a trusted third party says that website is what it says it is.

A lot of devices, Personal Computers included, will try to automatically configure a UPnP (Universal Plug-n-Play) device if it's on your local network. What determines what is your local network and what isn't? That's right, it's your router.

Currently, the most likely outcome of your devices joining a botnet is that they can (and likely will) be used to perform Denial of Service attacks on whatever target the botnet operator points them to. If a device with a moderate amount of processing power is compromised, it can be used to mine cryptocurrency. It's also not outside the realm of possibility that your network address could be used as an exit node by the darkweb making it look like you are downloading copyrighted material or child pornography.

In short, you don't want your router to be hacked.

Psykechan3 karma

I know a couple who got married in a bookstore and you just happened to be shopping there at the time. They have your autograph in their guest book.