IoT security vulnerability: A case study of a Web camera

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) are devices which are connected and controlled over the internet. The use of IoT devices has increased exponentially over time and knowingly or unknowingly our data is captured by IoT devices on a daily basis. Recent news on malware targeting IoT devices and some current research reveals that in most cases there are no security controls implemented on these devices. The exponential rise in the use of IoT devices, more processing of sensitive data by these devices, and their mass exploitation was the motivation behind our work. Malware like Mirai is currently being used to build large botnets which are used in DDoS attacks where up to 1.2 Terabytes of networks traffic is generated every second. We will discuss the threats when there is a compromise of an IoT device's security and provide a case study of an IP camera. We also cover aspects of how and why modern malware targets IoT devices specifically. We finally discuss the importance of securing IoT and provide essential security practices for mitigating device exploitation.