How could attackers gain control of hundreds of million devices? In this talk Vangelis explains how attackers can exploit a series of simple, yet critical API flaws that are typical “rush to market” flaws which allow an attacker to control and even use them as an initial foothold in millions of networks. Devices vary from routers to alarms and car chargers. It seems that the era of “central platform” handling that solves a variety of problems (like port forwarding) backfired by re-introducing a number of vulnerabilities that were thought to be long gone.
SPEAKER:
Vangelis Stykas(@evstykas)
Vangelis is a Chief Technology Officer at Atropos, and during his free time, Vangelis is helping start-ups secure themselves on the internet. Vangelis began as a developer from Greece. Six years ago he realized that only his dog didn’t have an API, so he decided to steer his focus towards security. That led him to pursue a PhD in Web Application Security with an extra focus on machine learning. He’s still actively pursuing it.
He currently applies his skills as a Chief Technology Officer at Atropos, and during his free time, Vangelis is helping start-ups secure themselves on the internet and get a leg up in security terms.
His love of a simplistic approach to hacking by exploiting vulnerable APIs led him to publish research regarding API controlling ships, smart locks, IP cameras, car alarms, EV chargers, and many other IoT devices.
Since our lives are nowadays extremely cyber-dependent, his goal is to convince all companies to never neglect their API security as rush-to-market mentality is almost certain to lead to catastrophic security failure.
This talk was presented at the OWASP London Chapter meetup on December 5th, 2003 kindly hosted by Thought Machine