Refrigerators, Routers, And TVs Send 750K Malicious Emails

Update: Turns out this was probably a clickbait hoax, but we all know it's just a matter of time. The Internet of Things is going to be a lot of fun for malicious hackers.

Computer security researchers say they have discovered a large "botnet" which infected internet-connected home appliances and then delivered more than 750,000 malicious emails.

The California security firm Proofpoint, which announced its findings, said this may be the first proven "internet of things" based cyber attack involving "smart" appliances.

The streets from Minority Report, echoed in the 2012 Total Rekall, looked amazing filled with robot cars, but did they find their own uses for things? Because the real street always does. Human cab drivers and truck drivers might be inefficient, and economically incentivized to driving under the influence of methamphetamine, but fraudsters can't hack them to send spam, and terrorists can't hack them to perform thousands of simultaneously orchestrated lethal accidents either.