Will Ransomware target our TV sets and coffee machines next?

Antivirus software company Avast warns against attacks on internet-connected home appliances

TVs, coffee machines, audio systems and other several home appliances which are connected to the internet, can now be under threat from hackers as warned by leading antivirus software, Avast. 

The Prague-based company registers 444 million users and prevents 3.5 billion malware attacks and 500 million visits to harmful websites every month and thus listed a number of vulnerable appliances such as TV sets, audio systems, coffee machines and toys. 
 

With the recent and the biggest breach of cybersecurity in the history of the internet, the Ransomware attack, hackers may target different home appliances through home connected routers. Avast wrote in its blog,"The top 10 targeted countries, according to our data, are (in order): Russia, Ukraine, Taiwan, India, Brazil, Thailand, Romania, Philippines, Armenia, and Pakistan. More than half of the attempted attacks on our entire user base were blocked in Russia."

“It’s a trivial thing to do and there’s nothing the user can do to fix it, other than to throw the router away and put in a new router,” Avast chief executive Vincent Steckler told reporters.  
 

On Thursday, the leading antivirus software company warned everyone against the attacks stating the probabilities of hackers targeting home appliances. Such vicious hacking that can expose data from the house is a major threat to the consumers.

With the world using appliances connected through routers and over the internet, the issue of cybersecurity is at a grave risk with malware and viruses emerging on an everyday basis.