**IMPORTANT! Please read!!** A few of you know, but over the past 6 months or so, I decided to pick up video game streaming on Twitch.TV. Its become something Im incredibly passionate about and I love it more than I can say. Last night, however, made me realize how dangerous the Internet really is. About an hour into my stream, when I attempted to play a game, I encountered a disruption to my internet service. Nothing was loading. However, although my browser and games wouldnt connect, my stream and chat were still working fine, which didnt make sense. Then someone in my chat said, Im DDoSing you. A DDoS attack (Distributed Disruption of Service), meaning someone had found my IP address and was sending thousands of packets of empty information to my modem, effectively cutting off parts of my internet connection. At first I didnt believe him. Then, however, he wrote a script spamming my chat with hundreds of bot usernames, saying he got my IP address through SKYPE (which I wasnt even logged into on my computer). Sure enough, when I checked Skype, I had a request from someone called live:doxing_3 who said bruh, its me whos messing with your internet ;) waiting for me. It got worse. He continued to harass and bombard me with bot messages saying that if I didnt stop blocking him in my chat, he would send the SWAT team to my house and say there was a bomb. See the video below at about 6:30 to see what that entails: youtu.be/uH-uRFIr3mA I waited anxiously, hoping that he was just some punk kid who was messing with me. Sure enough, about 20 minutes later, he SPAMS MY HOME ADDRESS, APARTMENT NUMBER INCLUDED, into my chat of 150 people, saying that the SWAT team was coming and that I had been warned. I cut the stream immediately and called 911 to warn them of the situation. Three officers showed up at my home an hour or so later in bulletproof vests with rifles. After sweeping my apartment, they said they had received a call only MINUTES after mine saying that there was a bomb planted in my basement and the caller would shoot anyone who came near my apartment. I had called just in time. Clearly, however, this kid didnt realize that apartments dont have basements. Regardless, thats not the point. The point is, it took someone all of 10 MINUTES to find my IP address, hack into my Internet, and worm his way into my ISP to find my home address (he called Cox pretending to be an employee, since he had my IP, to get my address), then access Tempe 911 to call in a bomb threat on me, all from the comfort of his home somewhere in Canada. The Internet is NOT SAFE. NOTHING is protected. For those of you who use the Internet to access an audience, you absolutely must be aware. These may be idiot kids who have nothing else to do, but it shows just how easy it is to have your information not only compromised, but shared with the world. Download proxies, do whatever you must to protect yourself. Be aware and stay safe.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 23:55:40 +0000
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