According to a report by Swiss newspaper Aargauer Zeitung*, cybercriminals have infected three million smart toothbrushes with malware to carry out a massive DDoS attack. The compromised toothbrushes were transformed into malicious botnets, taking an unnamed Swiss company offline for several hours and causing widespread disruption, costing the firm millions of euros in damages. This continues the recent trend of a significant growth in malicious botnets. NETSCOUT’s ASERT Threat Intelligence Team has identified** a sudden increase in device activity since the end of last year. These elevated levels of activity signal a new weaponisation of the cloud against the global internet, representing the beginning of a threatening new wave of cybercrime. Christopher Conrad, senior threat intelligence analyst at NETSCOUT, outlines the current state of Internet of Things (IoT) security and how more must be done to ensure IoT devices are secure: “Our increasingly interconnected world has seen a rapid surge in the number of IoT devices used in business and public services. These devices often have poor security, so cybercriminals can easily compromise them with botnet malware and use them to remotely launch a range of cyberattacks including DDoS attacks. “According to NETSCOUT’s latest DDoS Threat Intelligence Report***, nearly 8 million DDoS attacks were launched during the first half of 2023 – a 30.5 per cent increase compared to 1H 2022. Among these attacks, adversaries are predominantly deploying IoT botnets to target enterprises and other types of endpoint networks, but also state and local governments. Without better IoT security, we will see this threat landscape continue to expand and disrupt services. “While some IoT vendors are putting thought towards security, most are not unless they are forced to via regulations that gate markets based on compliance. Ultimately, IoT devices are designed for convenience, cost effectiveness and profit, and several vendors put that ahead of security. It’s often left to the end user to bolt on instead of being baked in. You still see several major vendors use built-in backdoors, hard coded credentials, or rely on the end user to change a password instead of forcing it at first setup. To top that all off, several IoT devices do not auto update, so old vulnerabilities stay in place for longer than they should. Having limited built-in security, makes them vulnerable to attacks like botnet recruitment.”
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