Technology makes our home smarter—they say, but it even generates a potential gateway through which crooked hackers can easily break into our houses. Yes, you heard it right! Forget laptops, forgot lockers. The age of cybercrime is here and thriving. Now even your smart refrigerator won’t be spared. Nor your TV set or washing machine. No wonder the Internet of Things holds great control for managing all of the gadgets which we use on a daily basis, but also holds great promise for cybercriminals who can use all these home appliances to fire up cyber-attacks.
Today, we will tell you the story of most interesting hack that ever happened in the history of digital era
The Story of Target Hack via Refrigerator!
Once upon a time in Denver, during late 2013, a bunch of hackers broke into 100,000 consumer gadgets, including home appliances like refrigerator, televisions, wireless speakers and media centers, and used these gadgets to release about some 750,000 malicious emails. Due to this reason some even remember it as the “Zombie Refrigerator” attack. The California security firm Proof point, Inc., which announced its findings, said this may be the first proven “Internet of Things” based cyberattack involving smart appliances. Proof point’s findings reveal that cyber criminals have begun to commander home routers, smart appliances and other components of the Internet of Things and transform them into ‘thing bots,'” to carry out the same kinds of attacks normally associated with personal computers.
See Also: Most Vicious Computer Hacks That Left Everyone Bewildered
About three-quarters of the emails were sent by regular computers, but the rest, slightly more than one-quarter, were sent by hacked home appliances. But what was remarkable about this particular attack was the sheer volume of traffic involved. Another remarkable aspect about this breach was that the attackers were able to collect customer info straight from the sales terminals. So, about 40 million people swiped their card at a Target cashier, and lost it.
Internet of Things or Internet of Threat?
The past few months have been remarkable and somewhat alarming in terms of cyber-attacks. The boom of IOT are constantly posing new security threats in our lives. Our smart homes are opening doors to hackers. IOT is an important and worrying development for two reasons. First, the devices themselves are not designed with security as a prime focus. Secondly, although their capabilities are lower than a regular computer, they are still more than capable of executing a hacking attack if employed in sufficient numbers.
See Also: 10 Common Techniques Used by Modern Day Hackers!
If we don’t consider this matter right now, then in the next few decades a billions of devices will be victimized by malicious attacks. Large scale attacks of such nature are going to manifest in future, so ensure to safeguard yourself by being aware of any potential threat.
Stay Protected & let your home stay a ‘Sweet Home’ always!
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