Home Appliances, TVs and Wearables at Risk of Attack by Cyber Criminals: Interpol

It has been reported that Interpol has warned that any device which is connected to the internet is potentially at risk of attack. According to the news, cyber criminals are more regularly attacking Internet of Things (IoT) devices including webcams, televisions and smart home devices such as Alexa. They could also be targeting wearable like Fitbits and smartwatches, and even home appliances, like your fridge or washing machine.

Adam Brown, manager, security solutions, Synopsys, said: "Attacks on IoT devices such as internet connect fridges, TV’s, smart home devices etc. are down to flaws in the software running on them, and attacks will continue to happen until those flaws are dealt with. Good practices by vendors around configuration and authentication need to be initiated or matured to prevent this in future.

"The famous Mirai botnet attack of late 2016, which saw the likes of Twitter, Netflix and others knocked out of service, was made possible because of the use of default credentials in IoT devices – a flaw in the design.

"I would love to see certification for IoT devices become commonplace so that consumers can know that the devices are cyber safe, much in the same way that if you buy a toy with a CE mark you know it has been through a process of assessment and it won’t, for example, poison anyone because it has lead in its paint.

"A certified IoT device will be less likely to lend itself to a hacker to steal from you, use you as a place to attack others from, or use your electricity to mine cryptocurrencies for themselves."