The story to date.
Round 1
The newspaper Aargauer Zeitung printed an article claiming that three million IoT-connected toothbrushes had launched a distributed denial-of-service assault towards a Swiss firm, inflicting its web site to be knocked over for 4 hours.
Hundreds of different information shops retold the story, assuming it was true. But, it wasn’t true.
Where had Aargauer Zeitung received the story from? Well, they quoted a safety researcher at Fortinet.
Round 2
After members of the cybersecurity trade (together with yours actually) mocked or downright debunked the story as “total bollocks”, Fortinet stirred into motion and issued a press release blaming a translation situation.
Round 3
So the place are we now?
Well, ding ding! It’s Round 3, and Aargauer Zeitung has come out of its nook preventing.
In a brand new assertion on its web site, the newspaper claims that Fortinet had current the toothbrush DDoS assault as actual (moderately than hypothetical) and what’s extra the agency had shared particular particulars of what had occurred.
Here’s what the newspaper has mentioned (computer-translated for us who don’t perceive German):
What is now described by the Fortinet headquarters in California as a “translation problem” has listened to the analysis in a totally totally different approach: Swiss Fortinet representatives have described the toothbrush case as an actual DDoS assault at an appointment, which handled present risk conditions.
Fortinet supplied particular particulars: data on how lengthy the assault paralysed the web site of a Swiss firm; a magnitude of how excessive the harm precipitated was. Out of consideration for his or her buyer, Fortinet didn’t need to reveal which firm it was.
The textual content was offered to Fortinet for verification earlier than publication. The sentence that it was an actual case that basically occurred was not obsessed.
The world administration of Fortinet has now rowed again with its assertion, which was despatched to numerous worldwide media. The firm has did not ship it to CH Media. We haven’t but obtained one other assertion from Fortinet.
Ouch.
Will Fortinet return for Round 4, or is {that a} knockout punch?