A Casino’s Database Was Hacked Through a Smart Fish Tank Thermometer

The term Internet of Things (IoT) generally refers to scenarios where network connectivity and computing capability extends to objects, sensors, and everyday items not normally considered computers, allowing these devices to generate, exchange and consume data with minimal human intervention. There is, however, no single, universal definition. There are many fields of application within the “Internet of Things”, they range from almost every household appliance to the gadgets like DVR products, thermostats, refrigerators, LED bulbs, office printers, etc. and hackers have been continuously targeting these applications with an intent to bring down critical business assets. Recently, Darktrace’s CEO – Ms. Nicole Eagan revealed that a casino in North America was hacked through a smart fish tank Thermometer. During a panel at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council in London, Eagan recounted exactly what the hackers went after. “The attackers used that to get a foothold in the network,” Eagan said. The thermometer was used for tracking the water temperature of a fish tank that was installed in the lobby of the casino. The hackers allegedly managed to identify and obtain the information from a high-roller database list of the casino, they then retrieved that information from the thermometer, back across the network, and up to the cloud. Usually, the device manufacturers are focused on the performance and usability of these Internet of Things (IoT) devices where the security measures & encryption mechanisms are ignored, this is why they are more often getting hacked. According to the sources, attackers were able to steal the data due to a security flaw that was present in the fish tank. The hackers exploited this flaw present in the thermometer and obtained network access. We had many times discussed this topic that the attackers are now more active than ever and finding many different ways to infect internet-connected devices and use them as a cyber weapon. Just like last year when a Smart teddy bear leaked millions of parent-child recordings and a refrigerator hacked the email server of the company. Yeah, we can call it a negative side of the IoT evolution. Since the Internet of Things (IoT) devices are so prone to cyber-attacks, we can practice some of the preventive measures, which are as follows:

1. Educate yourself about threats that a single smart device can cause.
2. Device manufacturers should timely secure and patch every security flaw or loophole that might be present in their devices.
3. Keep your operating systems and software up-to-date.
4. Connect only necessary devices to the network and protect them with a Web Application Firewall.

Conclusion: According to a recent study, about 70% of all internet of things devices are vulnerable to cyber-attacks and there will be 26 billion individual Internet of Things devices in the world by the year 2020. However, in the year 2009, there were only about 9 million of these devices sold. As the rate of manufacturing of new internet of things (IoT) devices are increasing, proportionally the rate of chances of cyber-attacks are also increasing. This is leading several companies and businesses to get into the problem. Thus, in order to overcome this problem, companies or people should adopt preventive measures and secure their network perimeter to avoid any kind of data breach.