Warning issued to Irish households over ‘dodgy boxes’ that could allow hackers into homes

Not great news...

This could allow scammers to access laptops and phones for theft, or use a household's wifi for cyber attacks.

In response, Google have “decertified” 1.3million dodgy boxes, which will cause them to stop working.

In a statement, they said: “We found this malicious software built directly into many different device models and brands over multiple years, supported by dedicated infrastructure and constantly evolving configurations to evade detection and manage their affiliates.

“We believe this campaign wasn’t an isolated rogue insider or a development oversight. We assess with high confidence that the backdoor and botnet were intentionally developed, deployed and operated for financial gain.”

Paul C Dwyer, CEO of Cyber Risk International, said: “If you’re buying a dodgy box in the car park and using one of these systems, you’re literally putting everything in your home network, including your children’s devices, at risk because you’re you’re inviting in known threat actors to your own network at home,” said Paul C Dwyer, CEO of Cyber Risk International.

“With AI now, if anything has a crack or a flaw, it’s going to be found. So if somebody’s bought a dodgy box and put it on to their home wifi, they’re now possibly part of a criminal network because it’s from their IP address that an attack or a scam will come. They’re becoming the cover for criminals.”