The Mirai botnet attack demonstrated that compromising which devices can lead to large-scale internet outages?

• A. Laptops and desktops
• B. IoT devices such as webcams, routers, and DVRs
• C. Smartphones and tablets
• D. Smart TVs only

Answer: (B)

Compromising insecure, internet-connected devices that are everywhere in homes and businesses can create a massive botnet powerful enough to knock services offline. Mirai showed this clearly by turning devices like webcams, routers, and DVRs—all of which often ship with default credentials and infrequent security updates—into a vast network of remotely controlled agents. Because these devices are numerous, always on, and directly reachable from the internet, they’re prime targets for infection. When they are harnessed to flood a target with traffic (a DDoS attack), critical infrastructure such as DNS providers can become overwhelmed, causing widespread outages that affect many websites and services.

Laptops and desktops aren’t typically leveraged to the same scale in these attacks because they’re usually secured by user actions, regular patches, and they’re not as consistently exposed as perpetually on IoT devices. Smartphones and tablets face additional protections and platform controls, and focusing on smart TVs alone misses the broader issue: the systemic security weaknesses across the broader set of IoT devices.