A researcher with Akamai has uncovered a highly destructive campaign that is rendering thousands of Internet-of-things (IoT) devices useless by wiping their firmware. The malware used to “brick” IoT devices is a new strain called Silex. While the functionality of targeted devices can technically be restored by reinstalling the firmware, it is not likely that many users will attempt this relatively complicated operation.
The person behind the campaign is a 14-year-old teenager using the moniker Light Leafon. The threat actor claims that he is going to continue developing the malware until it can “target every single publicly known exploit that Mirai or Qbot load.” Mirai is a notorious IoT botnet and Qbot refers to a family of backdoor Trojans that goes all the way back to 2009.
Read more: New Silex malware is bricking IoT devices, has scary plans
