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Thousands of various webcams and many CCTV cameras which are connected to the Internet have been compromised by the hackers through the use of a botnet. The hackers are targeting the government department websites and also bank sites. The hackers are using a botnet that was created by the infamous hacking group, Lizard Squad. The botnet is called the LizardStresser botnet, and it was created back in 2015.
Arbour Networks, a security firm which has been tracking the activities of the botnet’s source code since it was released to the public back in 2015 said there were two trends that were set by the botnet. The company said that there were two disturbing trends; one of the trends is that there have been an increase in the command and control (C&C) servers since the beginning of the year and also the users were hijacking the IoT devices. They were doing this by using the default passwords they found and that owner could not change.
The infamous hacking group responsible for the botnet is also known for its attack on the Xbox Live platform, and the Playstation gaming networks. It is also said the group switched the North Korean Internet off the grid for a time in 2014, through the use of its LizardStresser DDoS tool.
A report from Arbour Networks noted that after using all the bandwidth that has been made available to the IoT devices, one of the hacker groups has been able to make use of it and create attacks which have been deemed to be as large as 400 Gbps. These attacks are aimed at the gaming sites which are situated across the world, some Brazilian financial organizations, ISPs and the government institutions.
The IoT devices have been targeted by most hackers lately because of the lack of security that is thought to be on the devices. Unlike their counterparts, IoT devices do not have close to the best security than the computers and smartphones. One US consumer watchdog recently began an investigation of the hacking of four baby monitor companies.
Analysis of the LizardStresser attacks showed that the group responsible for the botnet attacks was based in Brazil. The group is believed to be a group of English-speaking hackers who are basing themselves in Brazil at the moment. They have begun the massive number of attacks on the IoT connected devices and they are using many devices of theirs to launch the DDoS attacks. These devices they are using are based in Brazil and Vietnam.
Analysts believe that the attack on IoT devices is solely on the manufacturers, who in most cases are believed only to consider security as nothing but a secondary quality. Chris Boyd, an analyst at a security firm called Malwarebytes said that most of the Internet of Things devices had been horrible security wise because of the cost which comes when ensuring there is security on a product.
