IoT devices (routers, cameras, NAS boxes, and smart home components) multiply every year. Statista portal predicts their number will exceed 29 billion by 2030. As connected device numbers increase, so does the need for protection against various threats. The first-ever large-scale malware attacks on IoT devices were recorded back in 2008, and their number has only been growing ever since. We conducted an analysis of the IoT threat landscape for 2023, as well as the products and services offered on the dark web related to hacking connected devices. This report contains the key findings of our research.
Attack vectors
There are two main IoT infection routes: brute-forcing weak passwords and exploiting vulnerabilities in network services.
Telnet, the overwhelmingly popular unencrypted IoT text protocol, is the main target of brute-forcing. A successful password cracking enables hackers to execute arbitrary commands on a device and inject malware. Brute-force attacks on services that use SSH, a more advanced protocol that encrypts traffic, can yield similar outcomes. However, it takes more resources to attack SSH, while the number of services accessible online is smaller compared to Telnet.
In the first half of 2023, 97.91% of password brute-force attempts registered by our honeypots targeted Telnet, and only 2.09%, SSH. The majority of infected devices that carried out these attacks were traced to China, India, and the United States, while China, Pakistan, and Russia were the most actively attacking countries.
Ten countries and territories where most devices that attacked Kaspersky honeypots were located, H1 2023 (download)
Ten countries ..
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