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<\/a>\r\n\r\nA hacker called\u00a0<\/a>\r\n\r\nA hacker called\u00a0The Janitor<\/a>\u00a0has created multiple versions of a program called BrickerBot, a system that searches out and bricks insecure IoT devices. A researcher named Pascal Geenens has followed the worm for a few weeks and has seen it pop up and essentially destroy infected webcams and other IoT devices.\r\n\r\nThe devices all used a Linux package called BusyBox and had exposed telnet-based interfaces with default passwords. These devices were easily exploited by the Mirai botnet, which essentially turned them into denial-of-service weapons.\r\n\r\nBrickerBot<\/a>\u00a0finds these devices and renders them unusable. The first version attacked about a thousand devices and alternate versions attacked thousands more. It disabled the devices by formatting the internal memory.\r\n\r\n\u201cLike so many others I was dismayed by the indiscriminate DDoS attacks by IoT botnets in 2016. I thought for sure that the large attacks would force the industry to finally get its act together, but after a few months of record-breaking attacks it became obvious that in spite of all the sincere efforts the problem couldn\u2019t be solved quickly enough by conventional means,\u201d wrote the Janitor. \u201cI consider my project a form of \u2018Internet Chemotherapy;\u2019 I sometimes jokingly think of myself as The Doctor. Chemotherapy is a harsh treatment that nobody in their right mind would administer to a healthy patient, but the Internet was becoming seriously ill in Q3 and Q4\/2016 and the moderate remedies were ineffective.\u201d\r\n\r\nThis sort of vigilante justice is fun and clever. If a user can\u2019t secure their own systems, perhaps a bit of discriminate destruction is just what these things need to stop leaving admin passwords wide open.","rendered":"A hacker called\u00a0The Janitor<\/a>\u00a0has created multiple versions of a program called BrickerBot, a system that searches out and bricks insecure IoT devices. A researcher named Pascal Geenens has followed the worm for a few weeks and has seen it pop up and essentially destroy infected webcams and other IoT devices.<\/p>\n The devices all used a Linux package called BusyBox and had exposed telnet-based interfaces with default passwords. These devices were easily exploited by the Mirai botnet, which essentially turned them into denial-of-service weapons.<\/p>\n BrickerBot<\/a>\u00a0finds these devices and renders them unusable. The first version attacked about a thousand devices and alternate versions attacked thousands more. It disabled the devices by formatting the internal memory.<\/p>\n \u201cLike so many others I was dismayed by the indiscriminate DDoS attacks by IoT botnets in 2016. I thought for sure that the large attacks would force the industry to finally get its act together, but after a few months of record-breaking attacks it became obvious that in spite of all the sincere efforts the problem couldn\u2019t be solved quickly enough by conventional means,\u201d wrote the Janitor. \u201cI consider my project a form of \u2018Internet Chemotherapy;\u2019 I sometimes jokingly think of myself as The Doctor. Chemotherapy is a harsh treatment that nobody in their right mind would administer to a healthy patient, but the Internet was becoming seriously ill in Q3 and Q4\/2016 and the moderate remedies were ineffective.\u201d<\/p>\n This sort of vigilante justice is fun and clever. If a user can\u2019t secure their own systems, perhaps a bit of discriminate destruction is just what these things need to stop leaving admin passwords wide open.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <\/a><\/p>\nCandela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t CC licensed content, Specific attribution<\/div>