http://qz.com/167817/someones-refrigerator-just-took-part-in-a-malicious-cyberattack/
By Christopher Mims
Quartz
January 16, 2014
Between December 23 and January 6, more than 100,000 internet-connected
smart "things," including media players, smart televisions and at least
one refrigerator, were part of a network of computers used to send 750,000
spam emails. So says a study just released by enterprise security company
Proofpoint. This is the first time anyone in the security industry has
proved that devices that are part of the internet of things are being used
just as PCs have been for decades -- as part of "zombie" networks of
computers used to do everything from sending spam to mining bitcoin.
It’s long been known that smart devices are among the most insecure
computers on the internet, but it appears that hackers are finally taking
advantage of the fact that everything from our toasters to our lightbulbs
will soon be internet connected -- and ripe for compromising.
"Bot-nets are already a major security concern and the emergence of
thingbots may make the situation much worse," said Proofpoint security
manager Dave Knight in a prepared statement.
In the same statement, security analyst Michael Osterman summed it up like
this: "Internet-enabled devices represent an enormous threat because they
are easy to penetrate, consumers have little incentive to make them more
secure, the rapidly growing number of devices can send malicious content
almost undetected, few vendors are taking steps to protect against this
threat, and the existing security model simply won’t work to solve the
problem."
[...]
--
Subscribe to InfoSec News
http://www.infosecnews.org/subscribe-to-infosec-news/
