We have already experienced the havoc created by Mirai Botnet, which infected Internet facing IoT devices and initiated one of the largest DDOS attacks ever recorded.
We have embraced IoT due to the sheer fact that it has enabled us to control the devices through Internet be it the refrigerator or the camera and in many cases the printer. Printers have seen a transformation not just with respect to advancements in printing technology but also a transformation in the way with which we connect to them. Such has been advancements that we now have Internet Enabled Printers which can be used for accepting print jobs over the Internet.
Very recently, a hacker exploited more than 1,00,000 printers and issued rogue printing jobs and according to him more than 3,00,000 printers are exploitable. It is interesting to note that, even though the hacker hasn’t leaked out the source-code for the exploit, however, the very fact that there are vulnerable devices out in the open would motivate enterprising criminals to add these devices into the ever growing list of vulnerable IoT devices and use them for nefarious purposes.
There are a couple of points which have to be taken into consideration while dealing with IoT:
1: Vendors have to implement robust firmware update so as to mitigate the threat posed by vulnerabilities as and when they are discovered and shared with the vendors by the researchers.
2: As a responsible netizen, we have to ensure that we change the default password of the devices that we use.
