The first half of 2021 saw 1.5 billion attacks on smart devices, with attackers looking to steal data, mine cryptocurrency or build botnets, reports Threat Post.
Surging cases of IoT attacks
The first six months of 2021 have seen a more than 100-percent growth in cyberattacks against internet-of-things (IoT) devices, researchers have found.
According to a Kaspersky analysis of its telemetry from honeypots shared with Threatpost, the firm detected more than 1.5 billion IoT attacks – up from 639 million during the previous half year, which is more than twice the volume.
“Since IoT devices, from smartwatches to smart home accessories, have become an essential part of our everyday lives, cybercriminals have skillfully switched their attention to this area,” said Dan Demeter, security expert at Kaspersky. “We see that once users’ interest in smart devices rose, attacks also intensified.”
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Keeping smart devices safe from cyberattacks
“Some people believe they aren’t important enough to be hacked but we’ve observed how attacks against smart devices intensified during the past year,” Demeter said. “Most of these attacks are preventable.”
To keep your devices safe, Kaspersky recommended that users implement the following best practices:
- Install updates for firmware as soon as possible. Once a vulnerability is found, it can be fixed through patches within updates.
- Always change preinstalled passwords. Use complicated passwords that include both capital and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols, if possible.
- Reboot a device as soon as it begins acting strangely. Note: This might help eliminate existing malware, but this doesn’t reduce the risk of getting another infection.
- Review and choose security solutions that help to protect IoT ecosystems
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Source: Threat Post
