The latest version of the Internet Protocol: A new vector for hacktivists?

  • 4 April 2014
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IPv6 is a new vector for hacktivists and hackers to exploit, and people do not understand that devices do not work like they used to.
 
Peter Wood, ISACA member and CEO of penetration testers First Base Technologies said that the majority of devices use IPv6, but he did think that a lot of corporates had got their head around what the differences were when it is implemented. “Some switched on to it and realised that the desktop and servers are already talking IPv6, unless they tell them not to,” he said.
 
He explained that a large enterprise with modern firewalls will block IPv4 and IPv6, but the nature of IPv6 is that once you switch it on, it will attempt to connect to servers on the internet.
“When you plug a new device into the network, the router delivers an IP address. So if you use a free WiFi, it is the cafe’s IP address that is giving it to you and when you leave you go somewhere else. With an IPv6 device, when you turn it on it connects across internet to a pool of servers and takes an IP address it keeps, and wherever you put it, it will have the same IP address.
 
“It is the nature of how it works unless you block it. It makes a device visible in a way IPv4 devices are not. When you are sitting at home, your router is giving you a temporary, private address – IPv6 devices do not work like that, they have a public address immediately and are addressable immediately. As soon as you plug in you are publicly available to the internet.”
 
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@ wrote:
IPv6 is a new vector for hacktivists and hackers to exploit, and people do not understand that devices do not work like they used to.
 
That's true.
Many people don't know anything about the about the differences between IPv4 and IPv6.
Some of ordinary users probably even don't know what it is.
Thanks Petr!
I hope that your post will return their attention towards these important issues :D
 
Mike
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Miquell wrote:Many people don't know anything about the about the differences between IPv4 and IPv6.
Some of ordinary users probably even don't know what it is.
 
IPv6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6
 
IPv4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4
 
😃
Userlevel 7
Now they should definitely be interested in this issue ;) 
I encourage everyone to read about it.
 
Regards,
 
Mike

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