Be less worried about your smart toothbrush’s security and take a look at the office WiFi router instead.
Driving the news: Several recent stories about the security risks of smart devices might have made people nervous about hackers targeting their fridges and thermostats — even though that’s not actually happening.
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Tom’s Hardware posted a viral story about three million smart toothbrushes being used in a DDoS attack. But it was based on a hypothetical example from a Swiss security company that was likely mistranslated from the original German.
- A Reddit post about a vibrator infecting a computer with malware was debunked when 404 Media bought a similar model and was unable to find any viruses.
Why it’s happening: These stories are almost tailor-made to capture peoples’ imaginations. On one hand, hack-able sex toys and toothbrushes are absurd and amusing. But they also justify tech skepticism among people who are already wondering why all their stuff needs to be connected to the internet anyway.
Zoom out: These attacks do happen but are way more common at workplaces, which are bigger prizes for hackers. One analysis found that enterprise IoT attacks quadrupled last year. More than half were in manufacturing, with the food, beverage, and tobacco sector a distant second. Attacks against universities and colleges, which may house valuable research, are growing the fastest.
- A team of security researchers tried to draw attention to this after infecting a wrench with ransomware.
- Personal tech getting hacked is far less common than breaches caused by a simple glitch or shoddy product, though that doesn’t make it less creepy to know someone might have looked through your home camera.
Bottom line: Basic network security diligence will probably keep your home devices secure. But you may need to be a bit more diligent at work, especially with routers, which are by far the most targeted devices because of how rarely their firmware is updated.