The worldwide web is about to become a lot more dangerous thanks to聽the Internet of Things, warns an award-winning online security expert.
Graham Cluley says increased connectivity poses a serious risk to a digital sector worth an estimated 拢118bn per year to the UK, as cars and even washing machines become smart devices.
The independent聽security analyst has worked in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, writing the first ever version of Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, before moving on to senior roles at Sophos and McAfee.
He joined the Infosecurity European Hall of Fame in 2011.
During a talk at Unlocked 鈥� Manchester, an event organised by UKFast and Secarma, Cluley said: 鈥淭he truth is you can鈥檛 trust anything these days. You can鈥檛 trust the internet. And the internet is on the brink of getting enormously bigger.
鈥渋n fact, it鈥檚 already getting bigger and it鈥檚 going to get way, way bigger still. It鈥檚 going to get bigger because of the Internet of Ghastly Things.鈥�
He added: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 happening is everyone who鈥檚 got anything to sell you, they鈥檙e plugging the internet into it. They鈥檙e using as a feature, as a reason why you [would buy that product].
鈥淏ut unfortunately security and privacy is not a high priority, and these devices will be coming into organisations.
鈥淭here will be devices in organisations right now connected to the internet that you may be unaware of.
鈥淎 Dutch company has put wireless sensors on cows. They鈥檙e monitoring, and finding out every time a cow becomes sick or pregnant. Each cow is sending 200mb-worth of data every year.鈥�
Cluley highlighted the case of manufacturing giant Miele, which recently announced its Internet-of-Things network-connected dishwasher was vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
The device, typically a model used in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, could be exploited by an 鈥渦nauthenticated attacker鈥� to 鈥渁ccess sensitive information to aide in subsequent attacks鈥�.
Essentially, the thing people need to little more than clean plates could be hacked by criminals.
Cluley added: 鈥淭he Internet of Things is being compromised. It鈥檚 no longer computers that are being hijacked by the criminals, but Internet of Things devices are being used to bombard websites.
鈥淎nd half of the problem is that so many people, on their routers, on their CCTV cameras and webcams, are using default passwords, which the hackers know and they鈥檙e able to get in and exploit them.鈥�