Move over Nigerian princes. The coolest player in the spam arena is here: a yet unnamed fridge.
According to ProofPoint, from December 23 to January 6, a botnet consisting of more than 100,000 devices sent more than 750,000 malicious emails. This botnet is not only composed of conventional computers though as it has been found out that other “smart” appliances were also part of the action.
Television sets, multimedia centers, and one fridge were also part of the botnet. David Knight, general manager of Proofpoint’s Information Security division though declined to name the make and model of the smart refrigerator caught hanging out with the bad crowd.
How would you even know if your fridge is already infected? Since this is a relatively new thing, it is imperative that developers of smart appliances should seriously look at their products’ security. Something that Knight preaches too.
“I don’t think a consumer should be expected to know and fix if their refrigerator has been compromised,” said Knight. “The industry is going to have to do a better job of securing these devices.”
A Smart Refrigerator from LG