In what is the first documented attack of its kind a fridge, a kitchen refrigerator, has been cited as a major force in the distribution of over 750,000 SPAM emails!

With the rise of the ‘internet of things’, it’s very likely that we will find more and more nasties lurking in our white goods from now on.

This is because few first generation internet-connected home appliances, especially lower end units, will have malware protection.

It’s also highly likely that other than those set by the most IT security aware consumers, the passwords used to protect these appliances will be easy to remember rather than hard to hack.

The internet connection is there purely to connect the device to maintenance sources and to monitor the environmental impact of the device. There is no access security and no way to detect intrusion or to counteract an attack if there is one.

So, with a fridge already caught sending SPAM and the International Data Corporation predicting that over 200 million devices will be connected to the internet by 2020, this errant fridge could prove to be the start of a significant problem.

It’s not just email that’s increasing in threat level and organised complexity. 75% of our customers have security projects in place, because they know that the cyber attackers are more organised and focused than ever before and its is not going to get any better.

At Open Reality we are working with these organisations to provide the solutions and services that help to keep them ahead of these emerging threats, most of which will be far more serious than SPAM from a fridge.

And so it seems, what was once the rather unbelievable storyline of a sci-fi film is no longer just a Nightmare on Elm Street. A very real SPAM attack could be coming to a fridge near you – and soon.