IoT Devices Had Been Used by Russian Hackers to Breach Networks, Claims Microsoft

The internet may have been the most revolutionary thing to have been discovered over the course of the last 50 years due to the profound changes it has brought to the world. That being said, it has also given rise to hackers, who spend days and nights in an effort to come up with ingenious ways of hacking into networks and stealing sensitive information. In that regard, the Russian hackers are regarded as particularly adept and following the hack into the servers of the Democratic National Convention some years ago, and their reputation has been further enhanced.

In a new development, Microsoft has claimed that Russian hackers had tried to compromise networked devices in order to hack into networks. As everyone knows, networked products, also known as the Internet of Things or IoT, has become an incredibly popular range of products over the past few years. However, it seems that those products are also now being targeted by hackers, who want to break into networks. The news about the potential hack had been first reported on the tech blog, Ars Technica.

Executives from Microsoft stated that after hacking into these IoT devices, the hackers had tried to take over the network. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center then published a post in which it detailed the whole issue. In the post, the company stated,

Once the actor had successfully established access to the network, a simple network scan to look for other insecure devices allowed them to discover and move across the network in search of higher-privileged accounts that would grant access to higher-value data.

The post confirmed that IoT devices had been the point of entry for the hackers in question. It is a significant development, and it remains to be seen how other companies which are involved in building networks react to this latest threat. Microsoft went on to state that it had in fact contacted the manufacturers of the IoT devices and informed them about the breach. It is hoped that the manufacturers of those devices will now ensure that security is tighter going forward.