Brickerbot

IT security firm Radware in April revealed a new Internet of Things malware, Brickerbot, which disables vulnerable IoT devices so that they're left inoperable.

This type of attack, which Radware described as a "permanent distributed denial of service," can destroy the firmware or basic functions of IoT device systems. According to Radware, the Brickerbot attack was targeted specifically at Linux-based IoT devices, which have their Telnet ports open and are exposed publicly on the internet. Those targeted are matching the devices that are targeted by Mirai or other IoT botnets.

Radware said the attacker could be a "grey hat" hacker who wants to expose vulnerable IoT devices or brick them to prevent future distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.