This is what the internet looks like: Spectacular image created by computer hacker captures every iota of online data for 'day in the life' of the web

Faceless computer expert hacked into millions of systems across the globe with a file the size of a small JPEG

But rather than spread devastating malware he created amazing map charting internet use

The harmless - but illegal - experiment has provided a unique 'internet census' detailing a day in the life of the web


A computer hacker has created a unique - but illegal - image of the internet which gives a true picture of a day in the life of the world wide web.



The faceless computer expert hacked into millions of systems across the globe with a file the size of a small JPEG and a simple trick involving the computer router.

But rather than spread devastating malware, the file, which was not malicious and was programmed to self destruct if anything went wrong, has instead helped paint an incredible and never seen before map of the internet, detailing a day in the life of the web and all of its users.



The red represents peak traffic and the blue represents base traffic.







The creator notes that night affects the U.S. and Europe usage less than other areas, probably because of the number of constant Internet connections used in routers and set-top boxes, fastcodesign.com reports.



Europeans in particular, also reach peek usage right before nightfall.



He writes: 'I saw the chance to really work on an Internet scale, command hundred thousands of devices with a click of my mouse, portscan and map the whole Internet in a way nobody had done before, basically have fun with computers and the Internet in a way very few people ever will.



The faceless computer expert hacked into millions of systems across the globe with a file the size of a small JPEG and a simple trick involving the computer router

The red represents peak traffic and the blue represents base traffic. U.S. and Europe usage less than other areas, probably because of the number of constant Internet connections used in routers and set-top boxes

Europeans in particular, also reach peek usage right before nightfall. Rather than spread devastating malware the hacker has instead helped paint an incredible and never seen before map of the internet

'I decided it would be worth my time.'

A FACEBOOK-STYLE SITE TO ATTACK INTERNET TERRORISTS

Britain’s intelligence agencies are today launching a Facebook-style site to share information in a bid to combat a growing internet terrorist threat. UK networks are often attacked by hackers from other states, criminals and companies seeking secrets, costing billions of pounds.

Now, experts from government communications body GCHQ, MI5, police and business will work together on a new partnership designed to defend industry and government against attack. Those using the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CISP) will be given access to a web portal, described as a 'Facebook for cyber security threats', which will operate on social network lines. Analysts, based at a secret location in London, can then choose who they share information with in real time. Large screens will monitor attacks and provide details in real-time of who is being targeted.

He was able to gain access to devices becau s e t here are hundreds of thousands secured only with the most common standard password, or without any password at all.

One of the largest groups of devices he found were routers, which, when provided by Internet providers are likely to have one of a few standard administrator passwords.



Most internet providers recommend the password is changed as soon as possible, yet they rarely are.



'As could be seen from the sample data, insecure devices are located basically everywhere on the Internet,'

He said while the majority of the devices were consumer routers or set-top boxes, worryingly some included 'industrial control systems' and 'physical door security systems'.

Using a scanning bot, the hacker found a router or other device with an open door and was able to upload a copy of itself.



From there, it conduct further scans on other devices, growing larger and larger.



After just one day, the hacker said that he had 100,000 devices under his control.



The project - named 'Carna Botnet' after the Roman goddess of internal organs and health - soon used 420,000 devices to conduct a swift Internet census.



Using this type of botnet - a group of Internet-connected programs that communicate with each other -- is illegal. Botnets are often used to send spam or carry out denial of service attacks.

But the hacker said he made sure Carna was only used for counting and each time one was shut down and restarted, the Carna Botnet flushed itself from the hardware.



His Internet census - which was carried out in 2012 - showed 4 50 million were IP addresses were 'in use and reachable' . But including firewalled IPs and those with reverse DNS records (which means there are domain names associated with them) the total equalled some 1.3 billion IP addresses in use.



His findings have been described as 'pretty accurate' by official - and legal - security experts.





