:: The 4th Era ::

Today, around the world more people have mobile phone subscriptions than have access to electricity and safe drinkable water. Today, almost a third of the world's population uses the internet (a 528.1% growth since 2000!

So what are we doing with all the time we spend online, and how do we know all that time is being spent in useful ways?

For many of us, the internet is among the first things we experience after we wake; in fact, 75% of users are online before 9 a.m. Over 75% of people in the US own a laptop, 53% a smart phone, and 31% a tablet. Email is the most common action performed by people on their laptops, while search is the top action for mobile phone and tablet users. 72% of people like to play games on their tablets while 70% use their mobile phones for social media. Where do we use these devices? 72% of people use their mobile phones while traveling, and 64% use them in restaurants and coffee shops. As for tablets, 88% of people use their devices in the living room, 79% in the bedroom.

Find more statistics and data at the infographic or article link.

It wasn’t malicious. The file itself was the size of a small JPEG. It was given the absolute lowest priority. And it was set to self-destruct if anything went wrong. But this small file allowed one single hacker to measure the Internet activity of nearly half a million connected devices around the world, then share the results with everyone.

How was this even possible? The "hacker" barely hacked anything. In reality, they gained access to all these systems because each had the default "root" set as a password. With this access in hand, they ran several tests focusing on Internet structure and activity. And what they created from all this data is a spectacular map that captures a day in the life of the Internet (and all of its users).