Casino hacked through a fish tank

A phish tank, you might call it.

A hacker used a smart fish tank to gain access to a casino, CNN reports. The tank, which is connected to the internet, was used as a point of entry, allowing the intruder to move through the casino’s internal network.

The tank was used to send data to Finland before being shut down by security firm, Darktrace.

They must have noticed something fishy.

“We’ve seen insiders sneak data out of heavily-protected organisations by attacking digitally-connected fish tanks” said Dave Palmer, co-founder of Darktrace, earlier this year. “Completely blew my mind. Who would plug their fish tank into the internet? Well it turns out lots of people do.”

Palmer may be referring to a similar incident reported about a smart fish tank in the reception area of a financial company. An intruder managed to store data on the tank’s internal memory, then used the connection to move data outside the building.

Why connect a fish tank to the internet?

There are companies that offer services to maintain the aquatic environments for offices and other locations. Maybe the convenience isn’t worth the potential loss of valuable data though.