Security researchers at Avast demonstrated at Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona how to adopt a modern television set for monero cryptomining. Viewers were able to watch live how the device was infected with malware. This is basically all devices of the Internet of Things (IoT) are suitable, including traffic lights, cameras, wireless router, speakers, smart refrigerators, other modern kitchen appliances, thermostats, controllers and much more.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is getting more and more extensive. Worldwide, some 500 million devices and services are connected to the Internet, with a strong upward trend. With all the advantages that modern technologies such as Smart TV or Smart Home offer, a look at the risks must also be made. The hacking of smart devices is no longer something that only a few geniuses can do.
Which devices are susceptible to takeover by third parties, budding hackers even do not have to try themselves. You can easily find this information on the website Shodan.io after logging in. This is a kind of search engine for hackers. The security gaps or standard passwords of all intelligent devices with internet connection are listed. Shodan.io scours the Internet daily and analyzes the results to keep the database up to date. For the very lazy hackers there are automatic tools like AutoSploit. This script performs the takeover of the devices at home by pressing a button. That's not legal, of course.
Of course, this accessibility to sensitive information threatens the privacy of people using, for example, modern security cameras or smart speakers at home. On the multi-lingual website Insecam.org is deterring the live stream of countless unprotected video cameras transferred to the network to educate owners about the threats to their modern devices. In Germany, there are at least 500 IP cameras whose live images are available around the clock. Since the operators of the cameras have never changed the default passwords for controlling the devices, the transmissions can of course also intercept third parties.
Capers of smart TVs for mono-mining
In addition to such applications for the hacking of smart devices, there was another one that is currently relevant for crypto-affine ones:
Employees of Avast, the manufacturer of Antivir, demonstrated at the show how easy it is to adopt a modern TV with Internet access. In the live experiment, a smart TV was hijacked to mine for Monero.
According to Shodan's database, Barcelona alone has over 58,000 smart devices on the network that would be suitable for adoption. For crypto-mining only devices with a fast CPU or graphics card are suitable.
The comparatively low margins of IoT device mining encourage hackers to infect even more hardware, yet still generate enough revenue.
For the owners, this can result in excessive power bills, increased response times, reduced power, and a shortened life of the affected equipment.
Websites like Insecam or Shodan and projects like the one presented by Avast show impressively that a closer knowledge with the safety precautions of the modern technology in the own house should be examined more closely for the safety. Accordingly, it should be checked at which points, for example, the default passwords can be changed.