iot security3 articles
Anthropic's Self-Replicating AI Botnet Research Is Held Together With Assumptions and Asterisks
Anthropic published research claiming that self-replicating AI worms capable of spreading across IoT devices could emerge within months, demonstrating that a small AI model could propagate across multiple nodes using one specific AI model (GLM-5.2), though all other models tested failed to replicate. However, the research contains significant caveats: the tests were conducted on deliberately vulnerable, custom-built environments, the demonstrated inference speed was extremely slow (0.39 tokens/second), and Anthropic admits it doesn't know if or when such a threat would materialise in the real world. Critics argue this is another example of frontier AI labs overstating speculative risks — partly to generate fear that ultimately promotes their own products and influence.
Exein Hits $1.7B Valuation With $270M Raise to Secure the Physical AI World
Italian IoT cybersecurity firm Exein has raised $270 million in an oversubscribed funding round, bringing its total funding to over $600 million and its valuation to $1.7 billion. The round was led by Headline, with participation from major investors including Goldman Sachs and the European Investment Bank Group. Exein plans to use the funds to develop a foundation model for Physical AI security, build autonomous agentic security systems capable of defending against machine-speed attacks, and expand its presence in the US market.
C0XMO Botnet Exploits DD-WRT Routers, Evicts Rival Malware to Claim Territory
C0XMO is a new, advanced variant of the Gafgyt botnet that exploits CVE-2021-27137, a buffer overflow vulnerability in DD-WRT router firmware, to spread across multiple device types and CPU architectures. It supports 19 DDoS attack methods, uses a Python-based scanner to brute-force credentials and move laterally across networks, and actively eliminates rival malware and security tools to maintain dominance on infected devices. Researchers at Fortinet describe it as significantly more sophisticated than typical IoT botnets, recommending that users keep devices patched, use strong credentials, and disable unnecessary remote access.