The metaverse will have its own zombies — and yes, they can get you IRL

Most of us have seen this scene in many a zombie movie: The howling horde marches toward the outpost in a roaring, crawling mass of flesh. “There are too many of them! Back off!..” Gunshot, now stuttering and walking away. The frantic staccato of the last survivor’s frantic run… Then, finally, silence.

Mēris (Latvian for “plague”), a modified version of the popular Mirai botnet some of them 250,000 “Zombies” or stolen rigs hit the party last summer and their rampage would have put the scene above to shame. According to the researchers, the botnet was able to send 21.8 million requests per second to its victims, bringing down their overloaded servers in a massive Decentralized Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

DDoS attacks increased by 37% in 2021 final report. Botnets are made up of hacked Internet of Things (IoT) devices are a key attack vector. And the truth is, this is just the beginning. Some of the open processes in today’s technology scene can fall into the hands of hackers and create the basis for a whole new volume of attacks.

Ever since Facebook’s parent company changed its name to Meta, all segments of the tech scene have been buzzing with chatter about it. metaverse, is a VR/AR-fused fusion of real and virtual worlds. In practical terms, at least for now, it means wearing a funny-looking helmet to a business meeting with animated 3D cartoons of your investors.

In more practical terms, this means more connected devices everywhere, both in corporate spaces and at home. The minimum you need to conduct your business through the Metaverse, namely Zoom, is just two smartphones, but there’s a reason the conference camera market has recently exploded. You want a sharp picture and good sound on your calls, so you get smart equipment that delivers. Security is also a consideration, so several body temperature sensors and motion sensors to prevent overcrowding will also come in handy. Connect all of this with a data platform to connect the sensor tape and create a comprehensive management solution, and you’re in the green.

Turning an office, manufacturing facility, power plant, or any other business or industrial facility into a metaverse hub is still a distant prospect. This would likely mean bringing in lots of connected devices. Headphones that are not yet ubiquitous; sensor-equipped wearables for better VR/AR control; and wall-mounted sensors If we are not satisfied with experiencing the digital world on a regular screen, all this should be part of the picture. Even before the Metaverse dream came true, there was an IoT device market flyingand the arrival of the metaverse will only shift the process into higher gear.

Now the bad news. Before going on a Metaverse-related IoT shopping spree, we might want to cool our heads a bit and take a deep breath, because often we don’t even properly protect the devices on site.

Dreams in the car

There is a huge security problem in the IoT market. Poor management of connected devices tops the list of IT professionals’ security concerns the end request. It rightly seems that during the six months between January and June 2021, hackers managed to compromise some data. 1.5 billion IoT devices, a huge increase from 2020. Some of these hacks may be nothing more than a harmless joke, but others result in actual data loss and associated costs. The latter are companies that often prefer to remain silent, so there is a certain fog of war here.

Even as successful as we know attack directed through or directed at the connected device may cause serious injury. It can bring down power grids, shut down assembly lines, or offer attackers a convenient view of a target’s inner workings through the eyes of hijacked cameras.

By the same token, the proliferation of potentially vulnerable devices means we’ll likely see even more massive botnets in the future. Their ability to take down websites and web services is quite problematic in a world where the SaaS model is emerging as dominant. in Software market. If your customers have to connect to your own server or cloud to use your services, an attack that brings it down targets the core of your business.

In addition, botnets can do more than spam connection requests on any target their owners don’t like. A botnet can work to spread malware, making it a force multiplier in a larger attack. It can extract sensitive data from an army of zombified devices as an intelligence-gathering tool for espionage or blackmail, or for a targeted phishing attempt. There are more exotic options for savvy hackers to try their hand at, such as tampering with the power supply in a private network, which is potentially fatal in harsh winter conditions.

The push for the Metaverse, if it ever comes to fruition, will not in and of itself create fertile ground for the rise of the largest botnet ever, as the trend has been long in the making. Without proper precautions and safety protocols in place, this could be the final blow that sets the roaring avalanche in motion – so we’d better get ready to fight those zombie hordes now.

Brad Yashar is the founder and CEO of EQIFi.