The hacked toothbrushes are circulating in the media worldwide and are raising questions about how this could have happened

“The toothbrushes are attacking.” Under this title, CH Media reported last week about a cyber attack involving 3 million manipulated toothbrushes. The case study came from the cybersecurity company Fortinet, a global industry leader with a market value of approximately $50 billion.

The unusual case received a lot of response. It soon circulated in the international media, from the British ‘Independent’ to the Indian ‘Times of India’. Due to its enormous reach, experts from all over the world also became aware of it. The description was received with great skepticism by many of them. Some sounded the fake news alarm. It is “pure fiction”; it is a “made up” example; There is “no evidence that the attack ever took place.” The story is even used as propaganda in Russian Telegram chats, as cybersecurity expert Kevin Beaumont writes on X.

On Thursday morning, several media outlets, including the Independent, distributed a statement from Fortinet: The case had been used during an interview as an example of a DDoS attack. However, the case is not based on Fortinet’s research. “It appears that, due to translations, the narrative on this subject has been stretched to the point where hypothetical and actual scenarios have become blurred.”writes the cybersecurity company.

The example was presented as real

What Fortinet’s California headquarters now describes as a “translation problem” sounded very different during the investigation: Swiss representatives of Fortinet described the toothbrush box as a real DDoS attack during a meeting discussing current threats.

Fortinet provided specific details: information on how long the attack took down a Swiss company’s website; an order of magnitude of how extensive the damage was. Fortinet did not want to reveal which company it was out of consideration for its customers.

The text was submitted to Fortinet for verification before publication. No objection was raised to the contention that it was a real case that actually happened.

Fortinet’s global management has now backtracked on its statement, which was sent to several international media outlets. The company did not send this to CH Media either. We have not yet received any further communications from Fortinet. (aargauerzeitung.ch)