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Three million malware-infected smart toothbrushes used in Swiss DDoS attacks

2024-02-07 17:53 by
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Hackers have infected millions of smart toothbrushes with malware in order to carry out a massive cyber attack against a Swiss company, according to reports.

The internet-connected toothbrushes were linked together in something known as a botnet in order to perform a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, which overloads websites and servers with huge amounts of web traffic.

The website of the Swiss firm was knocked offline as a result of the attack, according to local newspaper Aargauer Zeitung, who first reported the incident. The paper cited cyber security firm Fortinet.

Details are vague but warnings around the cybersecurity (or lack thereof) of Internet of Things devices have abounded for more than a decade. Apparently the toothbrushes, running Java, were infected with malware. Hackers then used the devices to create a vast network of WiFi-connected computers that overwhelmed the target company's Website with requests.

"Every device that is connected to the Internet is a potential target – or can be misused for an attack," says system engineer director Stefan Zuger of cybersecurity company Fortinet.

Read more -here-

 

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