Enlarge / One of the Sierra Wireless devices that can be infected by Mirai. (credit: Sierra Wireless)
This week, the US government-backed ICS-CERT warned that the troubling new generation of computer attacks is powered by malware that can infect cellular modems used to connect automotive and industrial equipment to the Internet.
An advisory published Wednesday listed five industrial control devices manufactured by Sierra Wireless that are vulnerable to malware known as Mirai when default passwords that ship with the equipment aren't changed on the gateways. The advisory referenced a separate notice from Sierra Wireless (PDF) that reported infections have succeeded against actual devices by connecting to the ACEmanager, a graphical interface used to remotely administer and configure them.
The Sierra Wireless post stated: