Following the release of the sourcecode for the Mirai botnet, which was used to harness DVRs, surveillance cameras and other Internet of Things things into one of the most powerful denial-of-service attacks the internet has ever seen, analysts have gone over its sourcecode and found that the devastatingly effective malware was strictly amateur-hour, a stark commentary on the even worse security in the millions and millions of IoT devices we’ve welcomed into our homes.
If mediocre malware can power some of the largest DDoS attacks ever, and considering the sad state of security of the Internet of Things in general, we should probably brace for more cyberattacks powered by our easy-to-hack “smart” Internet of Things, as many, including ourselves, had predicted months ago.“I am just surprised at how such a trivial attack code could be responsible for such a large DDoS. It really says a lot more about the state of IoT security than the specifics of the malware,” a security researcher that goes by the name Hacker Fantastic told Motherboard. “If people still aren’t changing default passwords and disabling telnet on Internet connected equipment in 2016 then we are heading to a future with more incidents like this happening.”
The Internet of Things Sucks So Bad Even ‘Amateurish’ Malware Is Enough
[Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai/Motherboard]