Call it the attack of the zombie refrigerators.
Computer security
researchers say they have discovered a large "botnet" which infected
internet-connected home appliances and then delivered more than 750,000
malicious emails.
The California security firm Proofpoint,
which announced its findings, said this may be the first proven
"internet of things" based cyber attack involving "smart" appliances.
Proofpoint said hackers
managed to penetrate home-networking routers, connected multimedia
centres, televisions and at least one refrigerator to create a botnet —
or platform to deliver malicious spam or phishing emails from a device,
usually without the owner's knowledge.
Security experts previously spoke of such attacks as theoretical.
But Proofpoint said the
case "has significant security implications for device owners and
enterprise targets" because of massive growth expected in the use of
smart and connected devices, from clothing to appliances.
"Proofpoint's findings
reveal that cyber criminals have begun to commandeer home routers, smart
appliances and other components of the internet of things and transform
them into 'thingbots'", to carry out the same kinds of attacks normally
associated with personal computers.
The security firm said
these appliances may become attractive targets for hackers because they
often have less security than PCs or tablets.
Proofpoint said it
documented the incidents between December 23 and January 6, which
featured "waves of malicious email, typically sent in bursts of 100,000,
three times per day, targeting enterprises and individuals worldwide".
More than 25 per cent of
the volume was sent by things that were not conventional laptops,
desktop computers or mobile devices. No more than 10 emails were
initiated from any single device, making the attack difficult to block
based on location
"Botnets are already a
major security concern and the emergence of thingbots may make the
situation much worse," said David Knight at Proofpoint.
"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."
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