Russian authorities have issued a stark warning about a growing cybersecurity threat targeting smart home devices.

Russian hackers have devised a nifty plan to advance their cryptocurrency mining plans by hacking into the smart home devices and infecting devices with malware to create a network of smart devices.

How Hackers Exploit Smart Home Devices

Cybercriminals are hijacking devices like security cameras, temperature sensors, and even smart toothbrushes to mine cryptocurrencies or monitor homeowners' activities.

These compromised devices can also be used for covert surveillance, potentially enabling robberies or unauthorized data collection.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs have warned citizens to frequently change their smart home device passwords and network names. The ministry has also advised Russians to configure each of their smart home devices individually, rather than using the group setting options.

A menacing slew of crypto crimes rising in Russia

Beyond malware threats, crypto-related fraud is surging in Russia. Prosecutors in Yakutsk are investigating cases where a resident was reportedly dumped of $4,600 in a investment scam.

Apparently, the fraudsters were impersonating employees of a crypto brokerage company, and was convincing the resident to invest in a bogus crypto exchange.

The case has been escalated into a criminal case and the local prosecutors are launching a wider investigation into the allegations.

On top of fraudulent cases, Illegal crypto mining continues to cause problems for power providers and grid operators in areas such as the North Caucasus and Siberia.

Areas such as Irkutsk, Russia's first and biggest Bitcoin mining hotspot, have succeeded in convincing Moscow to issue bans on crypto mining in the winter months.

These bans were set to operate in many parts of the country until 2031, but officials are claiming that the ban is appearing to do little to alleviate the issue of illegal mining in Irkutsk.

While illegal miners are just outright ignoring the ban, but the measures seem to be benefitting the city by helping it cut down on its electricity and power usage, especially at a time when it needs it the least.

Ilya Brilliantov, the Acting General Director of the Irkutsk Electric Grid Company said that in the territory of Priangarye, the ban has managed to free up 208 MW of capacity from legal miners.

Ban helping in more than just energy efficiency?

Brilliantov claims that the seasonal ban has left the power firm with about 800 million rubles less revenue in the 2024-2025 fall-winter period than at other times of the year, as legal miners powered down their rigs.

And it seems that the ban is not just benefitting the city in terms of energy efficiency and usage. Kirill Gazayev, Transbaikal's first Deputy Minister of Housing and Public Utilities, Energy, Digitization, and Communications claims that the power capacity freed up in the Irkutsk Oblast have increased the reliability of the energy system during the winter.

Gazayev also claims that there are no legal miners currently active in Transbaikal. He also said that his Ministry's investigation has not uncovered any illegal or quasi-legal crypto miners operating in the region.