Some perspective on IoT devices and DDoS attacks
Embedded Internet-of-Thing (IoT) botnets are not a new phenomenon - we've seen them leveraged to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, send spam, engage in man-in-the-middle (MitM) credentials hijacking, and other malicious activities for several years.
For instance, a few years ago, a 75,000-strong botnet comprised of embedded devices - consumer broadband routers, in that instance - was found to be launching DDoS attacks. We routinely see IoT botnets comprised of webcams, DVRs, cable television set-top boxes, satellite set-top boxes, and more used to launch DDoS attacks.