Silex Malware: Deadly New Virus Bricks 1000s of IoT Devices

Your IoT’s not sick – Someone just turned it into a brick!

A 14-year-old hacker created a new strain of malware called “Silex malware” which bricked over 4000 IoT devices in the span of a few hours.  

Once again, the world is shocked to find that IoT devices are vulnerable to all kinds of attacks. As reported on ZDNet, and elsewhere, the new Silex malware has struck and thousands of IoT devices were attacked, and rendered useless, within hours – with no end in sight. As they reported “A new strain of malware is wiping the firmware of IoT devices in attacks reminiscent of the old BrickerBot malware that destroyed millions of devices back in 2017. “ With apologies to Jethro Tull, if you’re really shocked, you are truly “Thick as a Brick”.

It is no secret that IoT devices have very low, if any, security. At best, some of them have passwords which are often left at their default settings or easily overcome by brute force attacks.  It’s no surprise that security concerns are one of the leading inhibiting factors to wider enterprise deployment of IoT solutions. Home consumers are less aware of the risks, although recent stories about hacked home webcams have raised awareness in the mass market as well.

ZDNet further reports that “the IP address has already been added on the URLhaus blacklist, after being reported by IoT malware researcher Rohit Bansal”. 

This statement hints at something that should be obvious by now. Blacklists are only useful if someone is able to use them to protect our connected devices and CSPs are ideally situated to sell and deliver IoT security to their connectivity customers. Instead of being a dumb pipe that connects the world of IoT, enabling smart devices, smart factories, smart cities and beyond – CSPs could sell secure IoT connectivity, turning the promised, fantastic world of “smart everything” into a safe reality. The potential market is huge as estimates of connected IoT devices by the year 2025 is put at 75.4B by Statista.

The good news, for CSPs, is that consumers are increasingly aware of IoT’s security threat to digital security and are willing to pay someone to make them safe! In a recent consumer survey, Allot discovered amongst “1,261 consumers from 10 countries. 72% of the respondents were willing to pay a monthly fee for an IoT security service.” What could be easier than leveraging your existing relationship with both home and enterprise customers, to upsell Security as a Service?

Frost and Sullivan stated that the best way to protect against IoT attack is by having your CSP play a key role “not only connecting your IoT devices but in systematically mitigating the cyber risks those IoT connections create.” Allot is a pioneer in this new category of CSP network-based cybersecurity solutions for the consumer and the IoT markets. Our cybersecurity suite, Allot Secure, utilizes a multi-layered approach that already protects tens of millions of IoT and consumer devices, around the world.

Are you concerned about IoT Security? Allot’s IoTSecurity and HomeSecure can assist—Contact Allot.