IoT malware doubled in 2016: 6 report insights

Internet of Things devices are vulnerable to at least 7,242 types of malware, a Kaspersky Lab report found.

Researchers planted malware "traps," called honeypots, which imitate IoT devices by running Linux and connecting to the internet. After 24 hours, the researchers detected tens of thousands of attempted connections from unique IP addresses.

Here are five report insights.

1. The researchers detected almost twice as many IoT malware samples in 2017 compared to 2016, when they identified only 3,219 types of IoT malware.

2. The majority of connections to the honeypots (85 percent) were attempted via telnet protocol.

3. The majority (63 percent) of attempted attacks originated from DVR or IP cameras. Network devices accounted for 16 percent of attempted attacks.

4. More than 3.9 million router IP addresses are potentially vulnerable to IoT malware attacks, compared to 7.5 million IP cameras and DVR IP addresses.

5. A majority of infected IP addresses are in China (13.9 percent) and Vietnam (12.26 percent). The U.S. makes up 3.95 percent of infected IP addresses.

Kaspersky Lab recommends users regularly update device firmware, disable network services that don't need to use the device and change preconfigured passwords.

Click here to read the full study.

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