It's difficult getting into the mind of a cybercriminal, you never know how they're going to attack. Lately, they seem to be favoring phishing emails used to steal your credentials and ransomware that encrypts your critical files.
Sometimes they get super creative so people don't see it coming. That's exactly what's happening now. Hackers have found a way to crash your printer, but you have the power to stop them.
Is your printer secure?
Security researchers at Trustwave say hackers have a new way to crash printers manufactured and sold by Brother. A vulnerability allows a cybercriminal to launch a Denial of Service (DoS) attack on impacted printers. A single malformed HTTP POST request could allow the attack to be carried out.
The researchers said, "The attacker will receive a 500 error code in response, the web server is rendered inaccessible and all printing will cease to function. This vulnerability appears to affect all Brother printers with the Debut web front-end."
However, this isn't limited to one brand. Many printers are vulnerable to these types of attacks if you don't keep its firmware updated.