"Smart Home Experiences Over 12,000 Cyber-Attacks in a Week"

According to a new investigation, smart homes could experience more than 12,000 cyberattacks in a single week. The consumer group Which? partnered with NCC Group and the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) to conduct an experiment in which a home was filled with numerous IoT devices, including TVs, thermostats, and smart security systems. The researchers then analyzed the number of attempted hacks that took place over several weeks. The researchers revealed a “breathtaking” amount of hacks and unknown scanning attacks targeting these devices, rising to 12,807 unique scans/hacks during a single week in June. In this week, the most common method used was attempting to log in to the devices through weak default usernames and passwords, such as ‘admin.’ There was a total of 2435 specific attempts to maliciously log into devices in this way, equating to 14 per hour. Encouragingly, most of the devices withstood the attacks, although a wireless camera from Amazon was hacked, which allowed a malicious actor to spy on the home. The device, the ieGeek security camera, has since been removed from sale from Amazon’s website following the study. Surprisingly, the researchers stated that an Epson printer was the most frequently targeted device in the house, but attacks failed as it had “reasonably strong default passwords in place." According to the researchers, having unique default passwords also protected a Yale security system and a Samsung smart TV from attacks. The analysis found that the hacking attempts took place from various locations worldwide, with the vast majority originating from the USA, India, China, and the Netherlands.

Infosecurity reports: "Smart Home Experiences Over 12,000 Cyber-Attacks in a Week"