Armis Labs says more than 5 billion devices are vulnerable to attacks through newly discovered Bluetooth exploits.–Josh Miller/CNET
Posted on 09/12/2017 5:45:06 PM PDT by Swordmaker
More than 5 billion devices are vulnerable to a "highly infectious" malware attack. Go ahead, blame the internet of things.
More than 5.3 billion devices with Bluetooth signals are at risk of a malware attack newly identified by an internet of things security company.
If you're not keeping count, that's most of the estimated 8.2 billion devices that use Bluetooth, which allows for our gadgets to connect and communicate wirelessly. Nearly every connected device out there has Bluetooth capability. Your phones, laptops, speakers, car entertainment systems – the list goes on and on to even the most mundane gadgets.
Because those devices can connect to others effortlessly, Bluetooth has left an open attack point for hackers, according to researchers at Armis Labs. The attack method, which they're calling BlueBorne, is especially dangerous because it can spread without the victim doing anything or noticing it.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
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My Sony Bravia tv can hook up to bluetooth, but it requires me to do some stuff, which I for sure won’t do now.
So, anything prior to Android 6 (Marshmallow) will not be fixed? It also sounds like while Google has provided the security fixes for Android 6 (MarshMallow) and 7 (Nougat), it’s up to the non-Google partners to implement these fixes.
oops, I'm getting distypic in my old age. Make that iOS 9.3.5, and older. . .
That Sony is probably an Android device at heart. I wonder if it will get an upgrade to patch the vulnerability? Check to see if there's a firmware upgrade for your TV. That might secure it.
Users have to find and download the patches if your devices can be upgraded. Some cannot be. If I were you, I'd be looking right now. Perhaps your carrier has it up now, or the Google Play Store will have a patch for your device.
Maybe this is why the Bluetooth on my Win 10 laptop doesn't pair with devices anymore.
So...what’s the risk? Will my speakers spontaneously start to play polka or something?
The neat thing is the TV is online and updates itself. So a patch would be easy. I just wish, when they wake up a set that is turned off, they’d turn it back off when they’re done updating. That would seem like a no-brainer.
Of course, if you have BlueTooth disabled, it’s impossible to be infected.
I don’t use my phone for “important” email, for instance, anything from banks, and always leave BT disabled.
That’s how so many celebrity nude photos and videos wound up on the web. If you don’t have BT or NF enabled, it’s VERY difficult for a phone to be hacked (as long as it’s always in your possession.)
Mark
Is this adult-onset distypia or the modern version spread by casual contact?
It took me about an hour to fix my Bluetooth adapter on a laptop recently. I wonder if this is what it was.
Cynical me says this is a good way to get people off their ‘old crap’ and update/buy new as WE are not going to waste our time protecting the older models.
Way back when ‘they’ invented the bugs, ‘we’ were told that there was no way certain things could be tracked so don’t worry about the ‘government’ tracking you and there is no way we can find all those students who overstayed their visas.
A ‘bug’ popped up and within 24 hours it was traced to a seedy hotel in a Manila suburb.
A cow in Montana was suspected of having ‘Mad Cow Disease’ and within 24 hours they had a print out of the cows lineage back to his great great great great grandfather.
It was called ‘planned obsolescent’ back in the day.
And don’t worry. No matter how cynical you get,
it will never be enough.
More likely some Russian folk song...
That would be totally stealth.
Convenient, but Not Good.
What do you mean? Should the TV be left on all night because it updated after bedtime? That’s what would happen if I didn’t notice the updating take place.
“So...what’s the risk? Will my speakers spontaneously start to play polka or something?”
That’s risk enough right there.
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