A recent study conducted by Unit 42, a threat intelligence platform of Palo Alto Networks has confirmed that the risk of a cyberattack on the Internet of Things(IoT) is too high than ever. And the study confirmed that all the 1.2 million IoT devices installed at more than 10,000 locations across enterprise IT and healthcare are vulnerable to cyber threats.
Gartner in its recent study estimated that by the end of the year 2019, 4.8 billion IoT endpoints were expected to be in use, across the world- an increase by 21.5% from the year 2018.
Unit 42 IoT Threat Report states that the devices which are working are super susceptible to cyber attacks as most of the device security posture is not meeting the standards leaving companies using them vulnerable to IoT targeted malware such as spyware.
Researchers from the cyber arm of Palo Alto Networks discovered that most of the IoT devices are not securing their traffic with encryption, thus leaving them susceptible to prying eyes.
Furthermore, the study confirms that 83% of medical imaging devices are running on unsupported operating systems like Windows 7 as Microsoft has now termed it as an extinct OS as it lacks the basic security support.
Other threat findings reveal that hackers are relying on modern techniques to propagate their infection techniques such as peer-to-peer commands, worm propagation, and password related attacks.
Unit 42 is advising the users of IoT to patch their printers and keep a track of IoT devices on the network. The Security firm is also recommending IoT users to better segment their IoT devices across VLANs and enable active monitoring.
