Hackers attack 70 times per minute: what happens when a computer is left unsecured on the internet

Comparitech researchers set up honeypots on the web to lure in attackers and record their actions. We recorded more than 100,000 attacks in 24 hours.

Every device connected to the internet has a unique IP address. Those IP addresses are public, and they allow computers to find and communicate with each other via the Internet Protocol. Normally, we want to allow legitimate parties to connect to our IP addresses, and keep out adversaries by using firewalls, authentication, and access control.

But what if we didn’t take any of those precautions? How long would it take for malicious hackers to find and attack your device? What methods would they use? What do they seek? And where do they come from?