Is a virus infecting millions of internet-connected cameras coming to a construction job site near you?

According to Catalin Cimpanu of Bleeping Computer:

Since mid-September, a new IoT botnet has grown to massive proportions. Codenamed IoT_reaper (Reaper for this article), researchers estimate its current size at nearly two million infected devices.

According to researchers, the botnet is mainly made up of IP-based security cameras, network video recorders (NVRs), and digital video recorders (DVRs).

Researchers from Chinese security firm Qihoo 360 Netlab and Israeli security firm Check Point have spotted and analyzed the botnet as it continued to grow during the past month.

The way the virus works is that it scans the internet for unmatched devices and then forcibly takes control of the device. Once enough devices are added to the attacker’s command-and-control infrastructure, the devices can then be used to perform coordinated Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on targeted servers and networks.

Almost exactly one year before researchers discovered the Reaper IoT botnet the Mirai botnet was discovered, which took down most of the internet for much of Europe and North America.

Since job site cameras, connected to the internet, are fairly ubiquitous throughout the construction industry, it is possible that some construction projects are already inadvertently part of the Reaper botnet.

How about that for a risk that few project managers have considered?