As the IoT continues to grow at a rapid pace, it has caught the crosshairs of the cybercriminals. Following are some types of the cyberthreats in IoT that you need to be careful of.
1. Social Engineering
Cybercriminals employ social engineering to trick people into exposing sensitive data like bank details and passwords. These attacks are made of phishing emails where they disguise themselves as another party and manipulate people to believe them.
IoT devices like wearables store and process large volumes of PII (personally identifiable information) to create a customized solution for users. However, hackers can access PII with social engineering and then go on to infect devices of a user’s family and friends.
2. DoS
A DoS (denial-of-service) attack targets a service and disables it. This occurs when the victim’s server cannot deal with capacity overload. In these attacks, many systems coordinate and attack a single target to request a service at the same time. These attacks are often combined with botnets for better results.
3. Botnets
A connected network of systems that distributes malware is known as a botnet. Cybercriminals use a C&C (Command-and-Control Server) to manage and control botnets, through which they can launch other malware as well. When devices and objects in IoT become part of botnet, they are known as thingbots – a botnet combining independent objects.
One of the most popular botnet is the Mirai attack that compromised Linux-based IoT devices in 2016. The attack used DDoS to capture a lot of devices at once. Some of the popular victims include Dyn – a popular DNS provider, Krebs – a famous Internet security blog, and Lonestar cell – a major telecom operator from Liberia.
4. Man-In-The-Middle
The man-in-the-middle attack is one in which a hacker or attacker attempts to breach and interrupt communication between two disparate systems. It can be dangerous because a hacker can intercept and modify messages that are exchanged between two parties where the compromised parties may remain aloof for a long time. Since the hacker has the original messages, they manipulate the recipient into believing that they are communicating with a legitimate party. In IoT, these attacks have especially compromised smart refrigerators, garage door openers, and smart TVs in homes while manufacturing plants have found their IoT machinery and tool to become hacked.
Final Thoughts
Shoden is a search engine for IoT. Sometime back, a Shodan developer revealed Telstra Media figured out how to configure wireless home routers that run Open SSH by exploiting a standard point having the shared the same credentials with thousands of other devices.
This meant that hackers can use Shodan searches to find unsecured home devices by their broadcasted IP addresses. Subsequently, they can locate residential addresses and make this information go on sale on hacking forms where countless criminals groups can exploit it.
To make sure that the IoT network in your home is secure, contact Tantiv4, so we can examine whether your IoT infrastructure is susceptible to cyber attacks.