Hackers Find Tank Thermometer As Way To Get Into Financial Records Of A Casino

In a weird turn of events, a rich, thick casino witnessing abounding tries of luck by money-minded and footfalls and thus resulting in many many hundreds of sacks filled with dollars, in town in America, that remains undisclosed due to their prestige, has been hacked and the high dollar secrets hidden in its financial records, remains no longer covered now. Detectives and cops zeroed in on a thin thermometer in a fish tank and which is said to be the source of all such digital onslaught. Can you be a believer to this?

While partaking in a business conference in 2018, the incidence was unfolded by Nicole Eagen, who is an eminent cybersecurity executive, at company Darktrace and the incidence was reported in Business Insider too, in same year. Recounting the event, she uncluttered, ”The attackers used that (a fish tank thermometer) to get a foothold in the network. They then found the high-rollar database and then pulled that back across the network, out the thermostat and up to cloud”.

Defining IoT, the objects we have around us, say pen, laptop, table, chair, elevators, sprinkler frameworks, trucks, cars, inventory and then we have fish tanks for decoration, within the colourful spectrum of which, colourful fishes swim and make us seek relief from tensed moments. Now, with such objects we have around us, can easily be attached to sensors and which are then linked to networks, databases as well as to other crucial framework of communication.

No doubt, such a typical digital assortment is hailed widely as when our objects become smarter, we can use them as a channel to transmit info and data, to address critical issues and also to manage their use quite judiciously. Take the example of Rolls Royce, which fit airplane engines, connected to IoT and that documents and sends the performance info to people present higher in the air, flying in airplanes. In the similar connected spirits, Thyssenknpp, a prestigious elevator company is set to pursue the concept the “smart buildings” as every lift is individually connected with the monitoring centres scattered worldwide, so as to send timely alerts in difficult times.

Clearly, when the objects are connected, they become responsive to our queries about their overall aspects and status of their accomplishments, such as how much hydrated soccer field is, the uantity of water flowing through the water stations, status of machines and its readiness before any critical operation and so forth.
Now, we cannot rule out the fish tank and its thermometer too, that is placed to keep track of the temperature and healthy conditions of the inside, as floating dead fishes would be of no one’s preferred sight, when they take out their heart gambling, with a treasure. Certainly, a typical scenario defining a buzzkill.

Devices Are Like Sitting Duck To Hackers:
Not surprisingly, when devices get connected and too much inter-connected, this creates a dire straight situation as hackers are empowered to sneak into our otherwise enclosed digital area, however secured and firewalled. This is also because of the fact and act that the plain objects don’t come with any in-built security protection, like we have in laptops, smartphones, tablets and servers, causing such objects (when connected), open to any sinister attempts while the owners remain oblivious to risks.
Addressing to media, Mr. Tim Erlin, VP of product management and strategy at security firm Tripwire, alarmed, “The industrial sector is facing a new set of challenges when it comes to securing a converged IT-OT environment. In the past, cybersecurity was focussed on IT assets like servers and workstations, but the increased connectivity of systems requires that industrial security professionals expand their understanding of what’s in their environment. You can’t protect what you don’t know.

How should Businesses tackle the situation?
Now, this brings us to such a pertinent question and tech stalwarts advise to remain a step ahead in advance in order stay protected. That means to rope in a prestigious IT group and to call any of their seasoned executive to your location who would carry out complete evaluation of the network and of devices and dumb objects (no, I don’t mean members of congress here) like elevators, machines, smoke detectors, lightning system, ACs, coffee machines and even the fish tank etc. so as to ensure such are entirely safe and secured.

Faisal Mahmood