BrickerBot Dev Claims Cyber-Attack That Affected Over 60,000 Indian Modems (bleepingcomputer.com)

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.

Comments

Re:what's the point?

[Ol Olsoc]

If you give enough people a headache, they will give other people a headache for it happening. Eventually, the people responsible will either change their ways or it's going to be a painful decade for them.

My boss told me years ago, that the best way to get action from someone with a problem I was having was to make it their problem.

And damned if that wasn't some of the best advive I ever got. Yes, it pissed off some folks, but yes, they remembered that I expected a quick response in the future.

I don't care if these people using this insecure hardware are blacklisted until they remove it. Watch how quickly that particular problem goes away.