The CEO of cybersecurity firm Darktrace told a CEO Council held y the Wall Street Journal that one of its clients, a casino, had its high-roller database hacked through a thermometer in its lobby atrium.
The revelation came in a talk concerning how hackers are increasingly using “internet of things” devices to access corporate systems using portals ranging from CCTV cameras to air conditioning units. “Internet of things” refers to a variety of devices that are connected to the internet.
Darktrace CEO Nicole Eagan told the conference that hackers had used the casino-hotel’s thermometer “to get a foothold in the network,” according to Business Insider. “They then found the high-roller database and pulled that back across the network, out the thermostat, and up to the cloud.”
Robert Hannigan, former head of the British digital-spy agency Government Communications Headquarters, was on the panel with Eagan. “With the internet of things producing thousands of new devices shoved onto the internet over the next few years, that’s going to be an increasing problem,” Hannigan said. “I saw a bank that had been hacked through its CCTV cameras, because these devices are bought purely on cost.”
Eagan and Hannigan called for regulations to mandate safety standards for internet-of-things devices.
