The most recent iteration of the Child’s Play franchise features the murderous doll Chucky as a rogue IoT device gone mad. The new film’s trailer features Chucky connected to the “Buddi” platform which allows users to control all of their connected home devices including various electronics, toys, and anything else that can be forged into…
Developers behind a newly discovered variant of the Mirai Internet of Things botnet malware have expanded their target list, placing a greater emphasis on high-bandwidth enterprise devices that are potentially capable of launching heavy-duty distributed denial of service attacks. Detected by the Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 threat research team, the botnet still attempts to infect…
Small businesses, which make up 99 percent of businesses globally and, on average, 70 percent, grapple with some of the same major cybersecurity challenges as large enterprises, only without the same resources. The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) and Mastercard have teamed on a free Cybersecurity Toolkit aimed at helping smaller and medium-sized businesses. GCA President…
The hacker who’s taken credit for compromising connected devices such as printers and smart televisions in support of YouTube star PewDiePie has gone dark, apparently due to fears of prosecution as well as death threats. According to multiple reports, the individual known as TheHackerGiraffe deleted his (or her/their) accounts on Twitter, Cloudflare, Patreon and other…
Thousands of improperly secured Chromecasts, SmartTVs and Google home assistants are being hacked and forced to play PewDiePie’s YouTube channel by a group that claims its actions are altruistic and merely designed to show the users they have poor cybersecurity. TheHackerGiraffe group, which took responsibility for an earlier similar attack against thousands of printers, that…
Turning on a “smart” light bulb may be the latest way people inadvertently flood the internet with their personal information. A new Symantec report has revealed that some of these connected, Wi-Fi-enabled IoT devices are unsecure and can enable a hacker to quickly come away with passwords, email addresses and other important information. While looking at some…
For the second time in less than three weeks, a hacker has forced thousands of internet-connected printers to spit out messages in support of Swedish video game commentator and YouTube star PewDiePie. The prankster said he (or she) is doing it to raise cybersecurity awareness, according to a BBC report, and claims he could even…
Tim Steinkopf, president, CentrifyThe coming year will be rife with new laws related to cybersecurity and data privacy. For example, large-scale IoT hacks affect countless devices. IoT devices range from home security cameras to massive machine-to-machine industrial networks and represent a massive broadening of the potential threatscape. Statista predicts there will be more than 30…
A two-month Monero cryptomining campaign targeted both Linux-based servers and Internet of Things devices with a newly discovered malware family called “Linux Rabbit,” researchers have reported. The operation occurred in two phases, each of which used a distinct version of Linux Rabbit that shares the same code base as the other iteration, according to a Dec. 6…
A large-scale botnet malware operation has been targeting router equipment running vulnerable versions of the Broadcom Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) feature. Active since at least September 2018, malicious campaign appears to be infecting devices for the likely purpose of converting them into spam bots, according to a blog post yesterday from researchers at Qihoo’s…
