A CHINESE electronics maker that has recalled products sold in the United States said Tuesday it did all it could to prevent a massive cyberattack that briefly blocked access to websites including Twitter and Netflix.

    Hangzhou Xiongmai Technology has said some of its Web-connected cameras and digital recorders became compromised because customers failed to change their default passwords.

    Liu Yuexin, Xiongmai’s marketing director, said that Xiongmai and other companies across the home surveillance equipment industry were made aware of the vulnerability in April 2015. Liu said Xiongmai moved quickly to plug the gaps and should not be singled out for criticism.

    “We don’t know why there is a spear squarely pointed at our chest,” Liu said.

    The hack has heightened long-standing fears among security experts that the rising number of interconnected home gadgets, appliances and even automobiles represent a cybersecurity nightmare. The convenience of being able to control home electronics via the Web also leaves them more vulnerable to malicious intruders, experts say.

    Unidentified hackers seized control of gadgets including Xiongmai’s Friday and directed them to launch an attack that temporarily disrupted access to a host of sites, ranging from Twitter and Netflix to Amazon and Spotify, according to U.S. Web security researchers.

    The “distributed denial-of-service” attack targeted servers run by Dyn Inc., an Internet company located in Manchester, New Hampshire. These types of attacks work by overwhelming targeted computers with junk data so that legitimate traffic can’t get through. (SD-Agencies)