A new study by cybersecurity company Zscaler reveales a disturbing fact, namely a 700% rise of cyberattacks on IoT devices. During two weeks in December 2020, security professionals examined the traffic to determine how much of it was malicious and what it accomplished.
Cybercriminals were well aware that the COVID-19 epidemic would leave many corporate offices without workers in 2020 and far into 2021, and they planned accordingly. Even though there were no workers in the offices, there was still a lot going on.
Various kinds of equipment, such as networked printers, digital signage, smartwatches, and other Internet of Things devices, were left behind in the offices. Most of them were still linked to the network and were waiting for commands, executing tasks, and updating information while also waiting for instructions. Not to mention that a large number of DVR and CCTV devices are quite likely to contact the command and control server of a botnet.