Security News
The Atlantic Council has published a report on securing the Internet of Things: "Security in the Billions: Toward a Multinational Strategy to Better Secure the IoT Ecosystem." The report examines the regulatory approaches taken by four countries-the US, the UK, Australia, and Singapore-to secure home, medical, and networking/telecommunications devices. The report recommends that regulators should 1) enforce minimum security standards for manufacturers of IoT devices, 2) incentivize higher levels of security through public contracting, and 3) try to align IoT standards internationally.
In general, IoT refers to devices with embedded software, sensors, network connectivity, and other technologies, allowing them to exchange data with other devices connected to the Internet. IoT devices are particularly common in the healthcare and manufacturing industries, where business-critical operations and data pass through internet-connected devices like monitors, tablets, scanners, and more.
AT&T cybersecurity researchers have discovered a sneaky piece of malware targeting Linux endpoints and IoT devices in the hopes of gaining persistent access and turning victims into crypto-mining drones. Popular adventure clothing brand The North Face and shoe company Vans, subsidiaries of the same parent company, have admitted to a credential stuffing attack that netted its attacker 194,905 user's worth of PII. Most every piece of PII stored on the two websites were compromised, with the exception of credit card numbers, which the brands' parent company VF Outdoors said it doesn't store on its sites.
A new piece of stealthy Linux malware called Shikitega has been uncovered adopting a multi-stage infection chain to compromise endpoints and IoT devices and deposit additional payloads. The findings add to a growing list of Linux malware that has been found in the wild in recent months, including BPFDoor, Symbiote, Syslogk, OrBit, and Lightning Framework.
Vulnerability disclosures impacting IoT devices increased by 57% in the first half of 2022 compared to the previous six months, according to a research by Claroty. The report also found that over the same time period, vendor self-disclosures increased by 69%, becoming more prolific reporters than independent research outfits for the first time, and fully or partially remediated firmware vulnerabilities increased by 79%, a notable improvement given the relative challenges in patching firmware versus software vulnerabilities.
Organizations need to be aware of the cybersecurity blind spots generated by the prevalence of IoT technology, because connected devices are opening virtual doors into organizations' networks. As IoT adoption becomes more widespread, 93% of enterprises are finding it necessary to up their security spend for IoT and unmanaged devices as a result.
In this Help Net Security video, Brian Contos, CSO at Phosphorus Cybersecurity, discusses how most companies consider IoT threats to be limited in scope. In actuality, a growing number of sophisticated adversaries are realizing the true value of IoT as an easy initial breach point to get access to the corporate network.
Fears over security have become less of a concern for organizations adopting IoT solutions than it was five years ago, according to a recent study by Wi-SUN Alliance, a global member-based association of industry leading companies driving the adoption of interoperable wireless solutions for use in smart cities, smart utilities, IoT and industrial IoT applications. The Journey to IoT Maturity, a follow-up to Wi-SUN's 'state of the nation' IoT study in 2017, is based on interviews with IT decision makers from UK and US IoT adopters within key industries, including energy and utilities, state and local government, construction, technology, and telecommunications.
"This family borrows heavily from the original Mirai source code, but what separates it from other IoT malware families is its built-in capability to brute force credentials and gain access to SSH servers instead of Telnet as implemented in Mirai," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs said in a report. The malware, which gets its name from an embedded URL to a YouTube rap music video in an earlier version, is said to have amassed a growing collection of compromised SSH servers, with over 3,500 unique IP addresses used to scan and brute-force their way into the servers.
The increased proliferation of IoT devices paved the way for the rise of IoT botnets that amplifies DDoS attacks today. Cybercriminals use botnets for various malicious purposes, most significantly for DDoS attacks against targets.