Kaspersky: Attacks on Smart Devices Rise Threefold in 2018

Kaspersky Lab observed a rapid increase in attacks against smart/IoT devices in H1 2018, reporting roughly 12 million Telnet attacks from 86,560 unique IPs and malware downloads from 27,693 unique IPs. Attackers used Telnet brute-force and exploitation of known vulnerabilities—leveraging Mirai-family variants, Reaper, Gafgyt, Persirai, Satori and VPNFilter—to conduct large-scale DDoS, crypto-mining and data-theft campaigns; researchers warn manufacturers and users to change defaults, update firmware, close unused ports and avoid exposing devices externally.