The Daily Dose

If you’ve encountered ransomware before, you’re familiar with how incredibly destructive it can be. It literally holds your computer and files hostage unless you cough up a steep ransom, usually paid in Bitcoin. Now, it looks like ransomware is about to make the leap from computers and smartphones to Internet of Things devices. Andrew Tierney and Ken Munro – two UK-based researchers for IT security firm Pen Test Partners – demonstrated the world’s first ransomware for a smart thermostat earlier this week at the DefCon security conference in Las Vegas. The Wi-Fi enabled thermostat that the researchers targeted is basically a…

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