IoT Device Attacks Up 9X in 2019 First Half

Kaspersky honeypots--networks of virtual copies of various internet connected devices and applications--have detected 105 million attacks on IoT devices coming from 276,000 unique IP addresses in the first six months of the year.

This figure is around nine times more than the number found in the first half of 2018, when only around 12 million attacks were spotted originating from 69,000 IP addresses. 

“Attacks on IoT devices are usually not sophisticated, but stealth-like, as users might not even notice their devices are being exploited,” Kaspersky notes.  The Mirai malware family behind 39 percent of attacks is capable of using exploits, meaning that these botnets can slip through old, unpatched vulnerabilities to the device and control it, Kaspersky notes. 

Another technique is password brute-forcing, which is the chosen method of the second most widespread malware source, Nyadrop. Nyadrop was seen in 38.6 percent of attacks.

Countries originating the most attacks in the first half of 2019 include China, with 30 percent of all attacks, Brazil with 19 percent and Egypt with 12 percent. A year ago, in the first half of  2018, Brazil lead with 28 percent of attacks, China had 14 percent and Japan was the source of 11 percent of attacks.