This is, apparently, unbelievably, true. In Europe, around three million smart toothbrushes – toothbrushes that are connected to the internet to keep track of your brushing habits – got infected by hackers. Individually, that doesn’t mean much. But when all the malware in all the toothbrushes was connected into one larger botnet, the toothbrushes were used in a Denial of Service attack on a Swiss company’s website. A Denial of Service attack is a cybercrime in which the attacker floods a server with internet traffic to prevent users from accessing connected online services and sites. The company’s site collapsed under the strain of the attack, reportedly resulting in the loss of millions of Euros of business. Normally, the toothbrushes would have used their connectivity for tracking and improving user oral hygiene habits, but after a malware infection, these toothbrushes were ganged up into a hacker attack. The toothbrush brand was not revealed, nor was the company affected by the attack.
* Well, humanity is boned now, for sure.
* I refuse to let my toothbrush be smarter than me.
* Did the attack happen at tooth-hurty?
* Who in their right mind feels the need to connect their toothbrush to the internet? Well, Gary Busey, sure, with those giant teeth who can blame him. But who else?
* Next up: Four million WiFi CPAP machines gang up and lock all the gates shut at Disneyland Paris.