The private investigators in Boise concern themselves these days with a lot of issues related to online security. A zombie malware strain known as Mirai enslaved IoT (Internet of Things) devices over a year ago which disabled many top websites. The IoT targets included security cameras, wireless routers and digital video cameras. There now appears to be an even stronger threat on the horizon.

Known as Reaper or IoTroop, this more powerful strain of IoT attack malware spreads through IoT software and hardware security holes. In fact, Reaper is evolving and in doing so it is recruiting IoT devices at a faster pace and could cause even more damage that Mirai did in the Spring of 2016. The private investigators in Boise say Reaper leverages security vulnerabilities found in a dozen device manufacturers.

The Reaper/IoTroop DNA

The Mirai and Reaper programs are in actuality computer worms. They grow by having a built-in mechanism that spreads them automatically from one infected device to a ‘clean’ device. Once the ‘clean’ device is infected, Reaper moves on. Research has shown that the behavior of Reaper in not aggressive but it is designed to spread in a more deliberate pattern than Mirai was meant to do.

What to Watch Out For

When Mirai attacks started in August 2016, there were warning signs that something was about to hit the internet. The initial injection of the malware was fed into the internet in July 2016 and it bullied control away from systems that had been infected by an IoT malware contagion known as Qbot. Cyber criminals then spent that summer taking over poorly-secured IoT devices from other hackers who had used weaker IoT strains such as Qbot.

Mirai was designed to launch DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks. When a DDoS attack is targeted at a single internet host or website, it creates a widespread internet disruption. The private investigators in Boise say that when this happens, IoT malware is spread once venerable devices are found through internet scans. With Mirai the scanning activity was so aggressive at times that it constituted unintended DDoS on home routers, web cameras and DVRs that the malware was made to subvert and recruit into the botnet.

The botnet then launched attacks against web hosting firms which results in several large websites going down. A source code was released by the malware creators which resulted in several copycat clones of Mirai which proceeded to infest and infect an even larger pool of venerable IoT devices.

How Secure Is Your System?

The private investigators in Boise warn that in order to keep your internet system safe from attack you should have malware protection installed in your computers. Any form of anti-virus protection is better than none at all and in order for it to work to its designed potential, you must keep the anti-virus programs current and up-to-date. For more information on internet security, contact the private investigators in Boise at Custer Agency.