You can now watch hacking attempts in real-time thanks to Norse

Want to feel anxious about your internet connection? The security firm Norse is more than happy to oblige. It’s running a live hacking map that shows the attacks against a worldwide honeypot network as they happen. While this isn’t representative of the full internet, it does act like a microcosm to some degree, the bulk of attacks originate from China or the US, while Americans almost always serve as the punching bag. You’ll even see large-scale assaults if you tune in at the right time. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to double-check on our firewalls… this map isn’t exactly reassuring.

The rise of the internet has given rise to a new battlefield. Whether across the country or across the world, hackers work to penetrate the digital defenses of nations, corporations, organizations and individuals. In a wonderful animated map, computer security company Norse shows who’s hacking who in real time. These hacks aren’t the ones going after the Pentagon, of course. Instead, says Quartz, Norse’s map shows hacking attempts against a “honeypot” network set up by Norse. This isn’t all the world’s hacking, but it could be a representative view of what that hacking ecosystem looks like. A snapshot of the map is reproduced above, showing some of the baseline back-and-forth hacking attempts from this morning. According to Nextgov, hackers try to break into the Pentagon 10 million times every day. The National Nuclear Security Administration fends off the same. The New York Times says that America’s universities are facing millions of hacking attempts each week, while way back in 2011 Facebook was facing 600,000 hacking attempts every day.