It’s also highlighted something else though – the Internet may be more vulnerable than we thought. We don’t mean the technology itself, but rather the users. People responded in various ways to the realization that they are cut off from a large part of the Internet, but the general trend was not good.
It looks like another incident like this, but on a larger scale, could have dramatic consequences for society and send us in a state of chaos and panic. According to some more pessimistically-minded commenters, this may be exactly what the mysterious attacker was going for.
The darker sides of the Internet are actually surprisingly deep. An attack like this looks sophisticated and it definitely requires lots of resources, but it can actually be purchased for surprisingly little money on the right markets.
Hopefully this won’t set a trend for the near future, inspiring others to try something similar. Although this might not actually be that bad in the long run, as it will definitely prompt companies like Dyn to be even more vigilant about their security.
Dyn themselves don’t seem to have anything to add to the situation, although this is normal. The company is right to be more secretive about what’s going on, as this will also impact their ability to defend themselves in the future. But let’s hope that there won’t actually be a need for that anytime soon – or at all.