#WeekendWisdom 076 Connecting Devices to the Internet

Liam — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 01:15:17 +0000

Welcome to #WeekendWisdom number 76. This week we’re going to talk about connecting devices to the internet.

https://www.l2cybersecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/WeekendWisdom-076-lo.mp4

What happened to the QNAP devices?

Last week the software that runs on QNAP Network Attached Storage devices, or also known as NAS boxes, had a vulnerability in them that was exploited. It was in particular targeting the QNAP boxes that were connected to the internet, that their contents could be accessed anywhere on the internet. What happened was the vulnerabilities exploited by some bad guys who ransomwared all the contents on those devices and looked for money to get the data back.

Are there any other things that could be at risk?

This put me in mind that lots of these NAS boxes and other smart home devices they make it very easy for people to connect them up to their home networks or to their office networks and then connect to them, over the internet through their internet connection and through their firewalls. But the way these things are making it so easy to do that means that they may not be done in as secure a manner as is possible. This was just an example, that these boxes were being taken over and ransomed.

But you want to be connecting devices to the internet

So if you have got in place cheap CCTV cameras or other smart home devices or NAS boxes that are connected to the internet, that if you can access it from anywhere outside of your home or your office, you might want to take a review of how securely that is set up, because it’s possible that these can be compromised and the bad guys can get in to your network through these devices.

So that’s it for this week. Lets be careful out there and we’ll talk to you again next week.

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