The Internet of Things or better known as the IoT is being used by companies and the governments around the world to monitor and track mass individuals and collect data without you even knowing it. What if a nation with vast resources puts it into use to spy and use it for attacks? Russia had a plan for this.
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Russia's FSB Hacked Once Again
The successor Russia's KGB, the FSB, has been penetrated once again by a group of hackers. This particular hacked exposed "a new weapon ordered by the security service," its target? The IoT, the name of the so-called "Fronton Program," is to exploit the vulnerabilities of the IoT en masse.
Fronton Program And The Internet of Things
Fronton Program, as it is called, wanted to exploit several IoT devices with the intent of not accessing those certain items but rather, to herd them all together and their surveillance power right into a botnet. This will be used against larger targets, like major U.S. and European infrastructures, internet services, or maybe even the infrastructure within countries of their choosing.
The Internet of Things is a network of gadgets in the real world that require no need for man-intervention for it to work while it collates data in real-time. Whereas one gadget is "dumb," but when used together with other IoT devices, it tends to collect data that can otherwise seem impossible to.
What Can Botnet Do And Why Should You Be Worried?
Botnets are a series of computers or internet-connected devices to perform tasks otherwise impossible for just one machine to do. The hackers have seen a document entailing that the FSB wants it for this reason -- "a powerful attack of several hundred thousand machines can make social networking sites, file hosting services inaccessible for several hours. An attack on national DNS servers can make the internet inaccessible for several hours in a small country."
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Recent Botnet Attacks in Our Time
It's been a while since botnet attacks have been used en masse, but it still is troubling to know the effects and what it can do to our modern-day and age. An example of the last botnet attack was an IoT botnet that infected over 600,000 devices called "Mirai." Back in 2016, "Mirai targeted the popular DNS provider DYN. This event prevented Internet users from accessing many popular websites, including Airbnb, Amazon, Github, HBO, Netflix, Paypal, Reddit, and Twitter."
Breadcrumbs Lead to FSB
The work order for the prototype cyber weapon was easily sniffed out; the document said that it "was allegedly prepared by InformInvestGroup CJSC by order of military unit No. 64829, better known as the FSB Information Security Center."
The Reason Why IoT Devices Are Easy to Hack
IoT devices are poorly maintained since, again, you don't need to do a thing for them to work on their own but don't have the security to protect themselves as well. No firmware updates, as well as most often than not, only has factory-set credentials i.e., username: admin password: 12345.
Regardless of the hackers being able to whistleblow FSB's actions and plans regarding the IoT and botnets -- is it something that would deter Russia or any government in using it when the time comes and if it would be needed? The answer to that seems rather apparent if you think about it.
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