‘Smart’ Home Devices Not Smart Enough To Avoid Cyber Attack,Can Even Cause Widespread Damage?

The Distributed Denial of Service DDoS attack that occurred last week across the United States East Coast was sophisticated and highly distributed. It was a virtual assault that affected millions of Internet addresses and malicious software.

According to BBC News, "Hackers used internet-connected home devices, such as CCTV cameras and printers, to attack popular websites on Friday, security analysts say." Twitter, Spotify, and Reddit, just 3 of the websites taken offline during the DDoS attack, use the company called "Dyn." Dan was the main target of the DDoS attack, along with the users of the services. Some analysts believe that the attack used the IoT (Internet of Things) through Internet-connected home devices to instigate the DDoSattack.

The security firm Flashpoint, according to an article in The Verge, "blamed the attack on Xiongmai's lagging security practices and use of a default username and password in its software and camera components." This is a weakness that is mostly found in IoT products which allowed criminals to generate widespread botnet of connected devices. Now the Chinese company Hangzhou Xiongmai issued a recall of its webcams in the United States. The Chinese electronics company promised to improve its passwords on the products and will provide customers with a software that protects devices against future DDoS attack.

"The more things that are connected to the internet make the attack footprint bigger and bigger," Justin Fier, Darktrace's Director for Cyber Intelligence and Analysis told Mashable. The consumers have to know that their web-connected devices could be used for massive internet DDoS attack. He suggests keeping devices up to date, changing the default password and regularly updating it to protect devices from DDoS attack.

Some say that DDoS attack is inevitable. However, by following these suggestions, we are making future assaults more difficult than it already is.