A recent report by a security research firm reveals that the hackers has sent more than 750,000 spam and phishing emails by using “Internet of Things”, connected home appliances such as refrigerators and television sets, without the authorization of its owners.
Researchers at Proofpoint discovered and revealed this shocking global cyber attack from over 100,000 consumer appliances which are connected to internet, that also includes the network routers, security cameras, smart TVs, gaming consoles and microwaves too.
This shows that the “Internet of Things” also not safe from the attackers. This cyber attack is the first proven hacking from connected household appliances that occurred between December 23, 2013 and January 6, 2014 by using “thingbots,” which can be installed on connected devices, remotely.
The research also pointed that the default passwords were used on major number of these devices to install the “thingbots” and the absent of PC-like antivirus software or anti-spam applications as well as not monitoring those devices for security threats helped the hackers to easily send spam and phishing emails via these malicious program.
Most sad part of the revelation is all of the affected home appliances and connected devices are still infected by “thingbots” until they are taken offline everywhere or the manufacturer creates a security update and being rolled out.
[ Source: Proofpoint ]
