Most common attacks on IoT devices

IoT devices are more and more present in our daily life. These are all of these devices that we have connected to the network. These can be televisions, light bulbs, video playback equipment… There is a wide range of possibilities. However, security is not always present. These are devices that can be attacked in a variety of ways and put our security and privacy at risk. In this article we will talk about of the most common attacks against IoT devices .

IoT devices, more and more used

In recent times, there has been a considerable increase IoT devices in our house. Technology is changing rapidly and we have more and more computers connected to the Internet. The trend is that in the coming years the figure will multiply and be much higher than the current one. We will have more devices, but also very different.

The problem is that hackers are taking advantage of the rise of this type of technology to carry out their attacks. They are mainly based on the vulnerabilities they find, as well as poor security settings on the part of the users. This not only puts this equipment at risk, but could also affect other devices on the network.

Top attacks against IoT devices

Hackers take advantage of these computers to carry out different types of attacks. We will mention which are the main ones that can put our teams in failure.

DDOS attacks

One of these issues that can affect IoT devices is DDOS attacks . As we know, a denial of service attack can affect many types of computers. Our device can join a botnet controlled by cyber criminals to compromise other systems.

Spam

Le spam is another problem present in IoT devices. It may happen that our device is part of a botnet to send spam to other computers, but it is also possible that due to vulnerabilities an attacker could send us spam.

Receiving spam can represent a significant risk to our security. Behind it there could be malware, malicious links and affect our privacy.

Brute force

It is without a doubt one of the attacks that affects IoT devices the most. In this case, the cybercriminals use brute force to try to gain access to it. They test the most generic and widely used passwords and can thus compromise victims' computers.

Information theft

Of course, the information theft is another of the threats present in IoT devices. In this case, they could obtain data on the use that we give to the equipment, collect the browsing history, etc.

We already know that today information is of great value on the Internet. Many marketing companies can use it to send targeted advertising. The platforms themselves may also sell this data to third parties.

Malware

The simple act of sending malware on our device opens up a wide range of possibilities for cybercriminals. One example is ransomware, which seeks to encrypt our device and thus demand a ransom in return for recovering the files. The malware could be transferred to other devices connected to the network.

How to protect the security of IoT devices

We've seen some of the most common types of attacks on IoT devices. We are now going to give a series of tips to avoid being victims and not compromising our teams. The first and most important thing is to always keep these devices up to date . It doesn't matter what kind of device it is, whether we use it more or less. It is always important to keep it up to date, as vulnerabilities sometimes appear which can be exploited by hackers.

It will also be essential to pay attention to the programs and add-ons that we install. It is vital that we always download them from official sources . Only in this way can we avoid unnecessary risks that prevent our devices from working properly.

Of course, another point that we cannot forget is to encrypt devices . Normally, these devices come with a factory password. However, the ideal is to change this key and generate a totally strong and complex one. It must contain letters (upper and lower case), numbers and other special symbols.