The F.B.I. is warning users to use strong credentials to prevent their smart devices from being used during swatting attacks.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) issued a warning to inform that cybercriminals are hijacking internet-connected devices and using them to live stream swatting attacks. Their prime targets are owners of smart devices with voice and video capabilities using weak login protections or default credentials.
What is a Swatting Attack?
Swatting refers to making a hoax call to emergency services, such as reporting a threat to human life, to draw S.W.A.T. team or emergency responders’ responses to a particular location. This creates confusion among the responding officers and homeowners and often results in devastating and even violent consequences and deprives the department of the already limited resources required to deal with genuine emergencies.
Swatting could be used as a form of harassment or a prank and to take revenge. Regardless of what motivates an individual to commit swatting, it is a crime with drastic repercussions. In 2017, an innocent man was shot dead by a police officer after a Call of Duty gamer pranked authorities into giving the fake address of a 28-year-old father.
How are Swatters Targeting Smart Devices?
Swatters are exploiting home surveillance smart devices with built-in voice and video functions to carry out such attacks. They easily target those devices with weak or default login credentials since many users choose to reuse their email passwords for their smart devices. Swatters use
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