Hackers enjoy hacking. It is no secret that they use their skills for results that negatively affect the rest of us, while they chuckle at their power. There’s even more bad news though for the market. Researchers are finding that it isn’t just technical devices that can be targeted by hackers.
A new study placed its focus on smart-devices used to manage households. Things like smart-lamps, smart-clocks, smart-appliances are in question, along with how vulnerable they are to hacking. Unfortunately, researchers realized that these items can be relatively easily tampered with and controlled from remote locations and by remote users.
The system in question is called ZigBee, which is a wireless and low-powered system. What it does though is create its own network where it can “worm” its way into smart-devices. The problem with the worm is that once it infiltrates one device, it continues to work its way into all others within range—within minutes. It’s a domino-effect from there that takes over all of your smart-devices.
This allows hackers to turn devices on and off, exploit them with a denial of service addition, or brick them out from household use entirely. To show the power of this tool, researchers posted drones outside of a building with smart-lighting. It was able to turn off lights almost immediately. If a hacker connected more than one of these devices, they could potentially bring disastrous results to a business by causing damage to the internet as a whole.
The threat of denial-of-service is a huge concern. This is when a user, or owner, of a device is effectively blocked out of its use. They are unable to log-in to make any changes to their own accounts. Such a hack is a huge threat to the public—in particular those who depend on smart-devices for monitoring and managing their household activities.
The most recent and known threats happened throughout the US’s east coast areas. It was suggested that the internet was the culprit and older devices were the vulnerable parties compromised. Research demonstrated though that newer and modern state-of-the-art devices may be just as vulnerable. There is no safeguard that stops hackers from infiltrating them also.
Security experts are debating hackers and their purposes, citing that they likely are pushing to infiltrate all modern media and technology. They may have the ability to take down the internet as never done before, if they combine efforts to a massive attack. The problem is that as technology evolves to tighter security, hackers are heavy on their heels doing their jobs just as efficiently. Only time will tell what the internet will look like in years to come, but the fact remains that hackers are going to continue to challenge themselves, and the security of the internet, to put everyone involved to the test.
