A security researcher says that the global internet will face a major 24-hour shutdown at some point next year.
James Carder, chief information security officer and VP of LogRhythm Labs, said in a Daily Star article that the internet will suffer a large “hit.”
"In 2017, we’re going to see it hit big sometime, somewhere,” Carder said. “If the internet goes down, financial markets will tank."
RELATED: Dyn confirms Friday DDoS attack was based on Mirai botnet
Carder’s prediction follows a well-documented distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that took place on Dyn’s DNS network in October.
According to reports at that time, the attack on Dyn’s network affected websites and services including Amazon, Twitter, Netflix, Spotify, PayPal, AirBnb, Reddit, Tumblr, GitHub and the New York Times.
Perhaps even more disturbing, a group of Russian hackers has been accused of allegedly compromising the presidential election to ensure a Donald Trump victory.
Not surprisingly, the Trump camp said the findings were not credible.
Regardless of whether the allegations of Russian tampering are true, lawmakers have taken greater notice of the recent raft of cyberattacks.
Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have called for the creation of a bipartisan panel to investigate cyberattacks carried out against the U.S. by foreign governments, according to a Reuters report.