
“As the number of IoT devices grows and attacks intensify, cybercriminals use both advanced and simple tactics to infiltrate smart devices. Throughout 2022 in the Middle East there were over 113,000 attempts to brute force logins and passwords to IoT devices using only the most popular combinations (examples are provided in the table below) the total number of brute force attempts is even higher.Įxamples of the most popular brute force login combinations for IoT devices in the Middle East region: Username
Kaspersky password manager fixes that bruteforced password#
Capitalizing on weak security of IoT devices, cybercriminals are intensifying their attacks.Ī brute force attack uses trial-and-error to guess login & password info or encryption keys, with hackers working through all possible combinations to guess correctly. By 2030, the number is expected to reach 729 million. According to open research, in 2020 there were 171 million IoT devices operating in the Middle East. This is related both to the activity of criminal actors and to the increasing number of IoT devices that are in use. The number of attacks on IoT devices has been increasing exponentially over the last years.

Cybercriminals use networks of infected smart devices to conduct DDoS attacks or as a proxy for other types of malicious actions.

These devices can collect and transfer data over a wireless network without human input. IoT devices include wearables, smart home appliances, smart city systems, self-driving cars, automated retail checkouts, and other smart devices for home and business use.

All these attacks were blocked on Kaspersky honeypots – decoy devices used to attract the attention of cybercriminals and analyze their activities. Over 2022, Kaspersky detected and blocked 337,474 cyberattacks on Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the Middle East.
