DDoS Versus PDoS

The Brickerbot hacks differ from the distributed denial-of-service attacks that are launched through vulnerable IoT devices and flood servers with data – such as the October DDoS attack, which was launched through IoT devices including webcams, routers and video recorders, overwhelming servers at Dynamic Network Services and taking down up to 1,200 websites.

"For DDoS, the devices are used in an attack, but not impacted," said Geenens. "They are using the devices as resources, not breaking them. With Brickerbot, the devices break."