According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other security agencies, it has
been found that the Chinese or China-associated hackers have hacked hundreds of thousands of
internet-connected devices such as routers, firewalls, network-attached storage (NAS) and
Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
As of June 2024, the botnet consisted of over 260,000 devices, including activity originating from victim devices in Australia.
This botnet structure is made up of similarly compromised devices known as bots. Those
bots were used to provide the hackers with unauthorised remote access. A functioning
botnet can be used for a variety of purposes such as malware delivery, distributed denial of
service (DDoS) attacks, routing large Internet traffic, and even infecting other devices to
recruit a new ‘bot’! It can even automate an infected device to perform a task repeatedly.
To prevent the devices from such attacks the FBI recommends disabling unused ports and
implementing network segmentation. In addition keeping firmware and software up-to-date
and applying the latest patch releases will help to strengthen the security. The default
passwords should also be replaced with stronger ones.
If any of your devices are acting erratically or otherwise giving you cause for concern, please contact us to give you a hand.
