Keeping hackers out of your home
Minim’s software monitors internet-connected gadgets
Jeremy Hitchcock is out for vengeance. At least, vengeance against unsecured webcams. More than a year after the then-biggest cyberattack in history took down the company he spent 15 years building, and much of the internet along with it, Hitchcock is on a mission to secure the millions of webcams and other smart appliances that helped a group of hackers bring the web to its knees.
“We were really powerless; that’s a really tough scenario,” Hitchcock said. “My phone just melted with text messages.” In October 2016, hackers hijacked millions of unsecured internet-connected devices and flooded Dyn with bogus traffic, overwhelming their servers. Dyn, based in New Hampshire, provides infrastructure services to many of the most popular websites, and the attack impacted Amazon, Netflix and Twitter, among others.
The attack used a vulnerability in many internet-connected webcams and other devices called Mirai to funnel traffic to Dyn.
Hitchcock, the founder and former chief executive of Dyn, recently launched a new company, Minim, that aims to prevent what he says was by far the most eventful day of his life.
His new company is developing software for internet service providers that will allow the providers and users to customize and monitor the everincreasing number of internet-connected devices in homes.
“Each of the devices, they need to connect to the Wi-Fi. You don’t know if they’re spying on you,” Hitchcock said. “Devices should not be able to scan or probe and look for opening in the networks, so we stop that kind of stuff.” Minim’s software will allow users to stop internet-connected toasters or dog feeders from using too much bandwidth, for example, and is trying to help ISPs keep pace with how quickly the home internet landscape is changing.
“Because of the fast growth of the internet of things, it has just not caught up,” he said.
Hitchcock left Dyn about five months before the attack, and had been searching for his next move after dedicating a decade and a half to technology designed to make the internet work.
“I was going to take some time; I was working on a couple different ideas,” Hitchcock said. “I had deliberately thought I wanted to spend some time outside of internet tech, really heavy infrastructure stuff.”
He was considering making a move to biotech or another health-related field when the attack happened, and he quickly knew where he would go next.
Minim is focusing on smaller internet service providers, and has about half a dozen pilot programs with companies, including Burlington Telecom in Vermont. The company said earlier this month it has raised $2.5 million from investors.