fbpx
March 28, 2024

Slashdot: BrickerBot Dev Claims Cyber-Attack That Affected Over 60,000 Indian Modems

BrickerBot Dev Claims Cyber-Attack That Affected Over 60,000 Indian Modems
Published on July 31, 2017 at 07:20PM
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bleeping Computer: “The author of the BrickerBot malware has claimed a cyber-attack that affected several Indian states and has caused over 60,000 modems and routers to lose Internet connectivity,” reports Bleeping Computer. “The incident affected modems and routers belonging to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), two Indian state-owned telecommunications service providers.” The BrickerBot malware infected modems that used default passwords and modems that the two ISPs left exposed via the TR069 management interface to connections from anywhere on the Internet. BrickerBot is a malware strain that affects Linux-based IoT and networking devices. Unlike other malware that hoards devices into botnets for DDoS attacks and other purposes, BrickerBot “bricks” the equipment by rewriting its flash storage with random data. In most cases this bricking effect can be reversed, but in some cases this is permanent. BSNL and MTNL had worked to fix problems but efforts were delayed after a BSNL workforce strike. The BrickerBot author also raised the alarm about similar exposed devices on the network of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). In April, the BrickerBot author claimed he bricked over 2 million devices.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

%d bloggers like this: