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Spam through TVs and refrigerators

24.01.2014

Proofpoint specialists discovered a botnet that, in addition to ordinary computers, included "smart" consumer electronics and appliances: multimedia centers, TVs, routers, and "at least one refrigerator." The botnet was used to send spam, according to the Proofpoint report.

The botnet, which was active from December 23, 2013 to January 6, 2014, included about 100 devices. During the use of the botnet, attackers managed to send about 750 unsolicited emails using it. At the same time, more than a quarter of the messages were distributed using household devices.

Devices that are not traditional computers, but entered the botnet, experts from Proofpoint gave the name "thing-bots" (thingbots). They believe that "smart" consumer electronics, capable of connecting to the Internet, is an easy target for hackers, because they do not have the protection systems inherent in computers - primarily anti-spam and anti-virus.

Proofpoint notes that the task for attackers is facilitated by the fact that users do not pay serious attention to the correct configuration of household equipment. Smart consumer electronics can be misconfigured, and owners often choose not to change the simple factory-set password.

Proofpoint claims that the malicious activity it detected in December-January may be "the first proven cyberattack using the Internet of Things." As a rule, the Internet of Things is usually understood as a system of household devices with a common control center that are connected to the network Internet, and storing data in the so-called "cloud".

Systems related to the concept of "Internet of Things" were demonstrated, in particular, at the CES exhibition in Las Vegas, which closed on January 10th. For example, LG and Samsung demonstrated refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and washing machines that can be controlled via SMS. Sometime after CES closed, Google announced it was buying Nest, a company that makes internet-connected thermostats.

According to the forecast of analysts from IDC, published in October last year, by 2020 around the world there will be about 212 billion "things" with access to the Internet.

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