According to security company Proofpoint, 750,000 phishing and spam emails were reported from December 23 to January 6. That may not seem out of the ordinary to most until you consider the means by which they were sent.
In the first documented case of its kind, Proofpoint claims that 25 percent of the emails were sent by hacking into non-traditional devices including routers, smart TVs and at least one smart refrigerator.
In their report, Proofpoint explains that these new Internet-enabled appliances, unlike more conventional devices like laptops and desktops, are not usually protected by typical anti-spam and anti-virus software.
The report also states that most small businesses don’t employ dedicated IT staff to handle new security breaches involving these types of devices. But, they recommend companies quickly put the same security measures in place for such devices as they anticipate their numbers to increase to four times the amount of laptops, desktops and mobile devices over the next several years.
Reference
Sophy, Joshua. “Appliances Now Can Be Used to Hack Your Business”. 1/21/2014.
