Security News > 2021 > September > OSI Layer 1: The soft underbelly of cybersecurity

Layer 1 of the OSI model has become a fertile ground for attacks and, effectively, the soft underbelly of cybersecurity.

Cyberattacks on the physical, hardware level happen when a disgruntled employee plants a rogue device within the organization's infrastructure and runs off with his now-former company's proprietary information.

Rogue hardware devices take advantage of the inherent trust that most operating systems have in the USB device ecosystem.

Rogue device hardware components are also sold by the millions, with firmware available online, and YouTube hosts tutorial videos on how to spoof a USB peripheral's ID. In a way, we've set ourselves up for the risk of hardware hacking by being proactive with zero-trust network security and making it necessary for criminals to look elsewhere, but never addressing the hardware security problem.

Even off-the-shelf hardware from big box stores can be replaced by rogue devices when cybercriminals target a particular locale.

The risk of hardware attacks is growing exponentially: What affects governments and big businesses eventually trickles down to companies of all sizes, so it's better if you think about countering it sooner rather than later.

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