iHack
Nicole Eagan, CEO of Darktrace - the leading machine learning company for cybersecurity, confirmed hackers exploited a smart thermometer in the lobby's fish tank and got access to the high roller's database. The hackers were able to pass the data through the cloud and back to their machines, as described by Eagan. "The attackers used that to get a foothold in the network," Eagan said at a Wall Street Journal panel in London. "They then found the high-roller database and then pulled that back across the network, out the thermostat, and up to the cloud." At the conference, Eagan explained how the Internet of Things has created many vulnerabilities that hackers can easily take advantage of. In some cases, hackers are able to access smart appliances by using the default password…
Since these smart appliances tend to be fairly basic they don't come with good security out of the box. "There's a lot of internet of things devices, everything from thermostats, refrigeration systems, HVAC systems, to people who bring in their Alexa devices into the offices," she said. "There's just a lot of IoT. It expands the attack surface, and most of this isn't covered by traditional defenses."
A few weeks ago the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the UK's National Cyber Security center publicly said that Russian spies have been looking for vulnerabilities on millions of routers as a tool for future attacks. Rob Joyce, coordinator for National Security Council, mentioned they have "high confidence" Russia is organizing campaigns to gain access to routers in offices and homes.
Some simple ways to prevent a cyber attack:
- Confirm the public WIFI you're accessing is legitimate.
- Once you're done connecting to the WIFI - forget the network.
- Use a VPN
