Warning of web-connected devices boosting cybercrime
Attacks which crash websites by overwhelming them with traffic are becoming more frequent and intense, says network firm
By Suchit Leesa-Nguansuk
Cybercriminals are increasingly using internet-connected devices as weapons to launch massive cyberattacks to disrupt web services on the internet.
“The more mobile-connected devices, the higher likelihood of cyberattacks,” said John Ellis, chief strategist for cybersecurity for Asia-Pacific of Akamai Technologies, a leading US content delivery network firm.
Based on its report in the third quarter of 2016, potent malware dubbed Mirai solidified the industry’s fears that the Internet of Things (IoT) and other internet-connected devices could be used for both web applications and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, which are malicious attempts to render a website or web application unavailable to users by overwhelming the site with an enormous amount of traffic, causing the site to crash or operate very slowly.
“This illustrated the need for device manufacturers to place a greater emphasis on security,” said Mr Ellis.
Most home routers and some IoT devices are accessible directly via the internet. Attackers can use those devices to surf web pages, relay traffic or even attack other devices on the web.
The lethality of any DDoS attack is a function of the total number of member bots and the average network speed of each bot. As more devices become connected to the internet, the number of bots will grow, he said.
