Be careful of your smart meter being hacked! Chinese police disclose the first IoT hacking case
(Video report)
The Internet of Things has quietly entered our lives. While bringing us many conveniences, it also poses potential security risks.
Smart meters hacked, power cut off for users on New Year's Eve
On this year's New Year's Eve, some residents in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, suffered power outages because their smart meters were attacked by hackers.
The smart meters used by the residents who experienced power outages on New Year's Eve came from a Shanghai technology company. After receiving complaints from users, the company conducted technical analysis and found that the smart meters may have been attacked by unidentified hackers, so it chose to call the police.
The head of a Shanghai technology company said: "We found that someone logged into our system, entered the correct account and password, and cut off the electricity for these tenants."
After receiving the report, the Shanghai police quickly launched an investigation and quickly identified the hacker as Pu, an employee of another technology company that produces smart meters. The police then went to Pu's company and found that Pu had installed the company's smart meter product under the table.
According to Pu's account, on the night of New Year's Eve, the company's head Shao was jealous of the market occupation of his own products, so he suggested that the company's programmer Pu use a hacking program to cause the smart meter to malfunction.
At present, criminal suspects Shao and Pu have been taken criminal compulsory measures according to law for the crime of destroying computer information systems. It is reported that this case is also the first IoT meter security case that has been solved in the country.
Further reading: Companies take the blame for network outages
On October 21, 2016, a large-scale Internet outage that started in the east swept across half of the US network. One of the culprits turned out to be a camera module produced by a domestic security video product solution and technology provider. This camera module was adopted by many network camera and DVR manufacturers and sold in large quantities in the United States.
The passwords of some of the company's early camera module products were written into the firmware and were difficult to modify. Hackers found this opportunity and opened the door with the default password, controlling it to become a zombie of IoT DDoS attacks. Such an inadvertent problem actually made the small webcam play such a "huge role"!
American technology companies involved in the investigation blamed the Chinese company, and the media suggested that it was responsible for the "paralysis". Finally, the company issued a recall plan for some early products sold in the United States.
It can be seen that once a hacker discovers a small problem in the various terminals of the Internet of Things, the destructive power that will erupt due to the huge number of terminal devices cannot be underestimated. At the same time, enterprises will also bear the "blame" for this. IoT security cannot be ignored!
Source: CCTV Hotline, CCTV Finance
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