20 Sep New Report: Cyber Security Attacks to IoT Devices Rapidly on the Rise
With more IoT devices being deployed daily than ever before comes greater cyber security risk. Such devices are a prime, exciting target for the ever-evolving hacker that loves a new challenge.
In fact, just this week an alarming warning was issued by the security researchers at F-Secure. According to Forbes, their recent report, “Attack Landscape H1 2019,” states that the company recorded a “three-fold increase in attack traffic to more than 2.9 billion events.”
Why are IoT devices a prime target for cyber security attacks?
The inherent risk to IoT devices is rapidly on the rise with each day due to overwhelmed IT departments that are attempting to deal with thousands of devices, aging hardware and a lack of focus on cyber security altogether.
Another alarming risk is that attackers can use such endpoints to access your home or business network. Companies today can vanish quickly or lose thousands of customers if a cybe rattack aims to and successfully secures sensitive customer data, resulting in a bad PR storm that lasts weeks.
What are hackers aiming to do once they’ve accessed your devices or network?
Malware is often being used to “infect IoT devices that use default credentials and co-opts those devices into botnets that conduct DDoS attacks,” according to the aforementioned Forbes article.
What do IT managers need to be on the lookout for?
As typical with malware, the entry point is often an employee that clicks or installs a program, according to the F-secure report. This should drive an internal awareness campaign to notify employees of such risks. Additionally, IT managers should always keep IoT devices patched, preventing access to your business network.