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Fridge caught sending spam emails in
botnet attack
Fridge caught sending spam emails
in botnet attack
In the first documented attack of its kind, the Internet of
Things has been used as part of an attack that sent out over 750,000 spam
emails.
by Michelle Starr cnet.com
January 19, 2014 4:53 PM
In the first documented attack of
its kind, the Internet of Things has been used as part of an attack that sent
out over 750,000 spam emails.
With the rise of the Internet of
Things comes a lot of convenience, such as smart fridges
that let you access the internet and call for service in the case of
malfunction, or devices that can monitor your energy usage and send you Twitter updates.
It also comes with a new problem: many of these
internet-connected devices don't have malware protection. And it's now been
documented that someone is taking advantage. Security company Proofpoint has discovered a botnet attack -- that is,
a cyber attack whereby the attacker hijacks devices remotely to send spam --
incorporating over 100,000 devices between 23 December and 6 January, including
routers, multimedia centres, televisions and at least one refrigerator.
The attack sent out over 750,000 spam emails, in bursts of
100,000 emails at a time, three times a day, with no more than 10 emails sent
from any one IP address, making them difficult to block. Over 25 per cent of
the emails were sent from devices that weren't conventional computers or mobile
devices. It is the first documented case of common appliances being used in a
cyber attack -- but that doesn't necessarily mean it was the first time it
occurred, and it certainly won't be the last.
Most of the devices, Proofpoint found, weren't subject to a
sophisticated attack. Instead, misconfiguration and the use of default
passwords had left them open on public networks and therefore vulnerable to
this kind of attack.
"Botnets are already a major security concern and the
emergence of thingbots may make the situation much worse," said
Proofpoint's David Knight. "Many of these devices are poorly protected at
best and consumers have virtually no way to detect or fix infections when they
do occur. Enterprises may find distributed attacks increasing as more and more
of these devices come online and attackers find additional ways to exploit them."
With the International
Data Corporation predicting that over 200 million devices
will be connected to the internet by the year 2020, this could prove to be a
significant problem, particularly since they are not routinely monitored for
malicious activity.
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