If you routinely find yourself cursing the 15 different passwords you’re supposed to remember for your computer and your email and your bank account and your Facebook account and, of course, your Slate account, this map will remind you why you have them. The map, created by Deutsche Telekom, the German parent company of T-Mobile, shows where cyberattacks are happening in real time.
The company uses 97 “honeypots” to track the attacks, according to a press release about the website. Honeypots are systems that simulate security vulnerabilities in order to attract cyberattacks and gather information about them.
The biggest sources of cyberattacks last month were systems originating in Russia and China, according to the website. President Obama has described cybersecurity as “one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation.” In the last few years, hackers have attacked Facebook, Apple, Twitter, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and even (gasp!) Hollywood. The U.S., China, Russia, and Iran all allegedly engage in cyberwarfare.
