The Hidden Backdoors Inside Millions of Smart Devices | WSJ

Millions of everyday consumer devices, especially knockoffs that you buy online, are being infected by a malware known as residential proxy software. This gives anyone – including hackers – a backdoor into home networks. The Digital Citizens Alliance estimates that there are 20 million of these back doors in the U.S. WSJ’s Jack Gillum test a few of these malware-riddled products to investigate how criminals are tapping into them to carry out cyberattacks and other types of illegal activity around the world. Chapters: 0:00 Dangers of Internet-connected devices 0:32 How these cyberattacks work 2:24 Dangers of residential proxies 4:31 Comcast investigating the threats 5:52 How many devices are infected? 7:08 How the devices are leveraged Think one of your gadgets has been infected? Here’s how to check: https://on.wsj.com/4ec7Vqr News Explainers Some days the high-speed news cycle can bring more questions than answers. WSJ’s news explainers break down the day's biggest stories into bite-size pieces to help you make sense of the news. #Crime #Cybersecurity #WSJ