IoT Botnet Threat

A new massive Internet of Things (IoT) botnet is growing and could take down the Internet, cyber security experts have warned.

17:59 26 October 2017

A massive botnet that has been gathering steam for the past couple of weeks may take down the Internet soon, cyber security experts have warned. The botnet uses Internet connected devices to send surges of data to servers to knock them offline.

 

Last year, a similar attack, called the Mirai botnet, wiped out the Internet across the US. However, Israeli security researchers at Check Point said that the new bot, called the Reaper, is more sophisticated and could cause a “cyber hurricane.” They also said that so far, Reaper has already affected one million organisations.

 

In a blog post, they said: "So far we estimate over a million organisations have already been affected worldwide, including the US, Australia and everywhere in between, and the number is only increasing.

 

"Our research suggests we are now experiencing the calm before an even more powerful storm.

 

"The next cyber hurricane is about to come."

 

Based on the collected data, it seems that the malware is exploiting the vulnerabilities in Wireless IP camera devices such as GoAhead, D-Link, TP-Link, AVTECH, NETGEAR, MikroTik, Linksys, Synology and others.