The smart home revolution has filled our lives with convenience—voice assistants, connected cameras, smart TVs, and even Wi-Fi refrigerators. But beneath the convenience lies a growing danger: IoT botnets. These massive armies of hijacked smart devices are being turned into cyber weapons, capable of launching devastating attacks across the internet.

An IoT botnet forms when attackers infect vulnerable devices with malware, often exploiting weak or default passwords. Once compromised, each device becomes a “zombie,” quietly waiting for commands from the attacker. Multiply this by thousands—or even millions—of devices, and you get a powerful distributed network that can overwhelm websites, disrupt online services, or spread further malware. The infamous Mirai botnet, discovered in 2016, was an early warning: it hijacked hundreds of thousands of IoT devices and used them to launch record-breaking DDoS attacks, temporarily knocking major sites like Twitter, Netflix, and Spotify offline.

The problem hasn’t gone away—it’s only grown. As IoT adoption skyrockets, many manufacturers still ship products with minimal security, prioritizing cost and convenience over resilience. This creates a perfect storm where everything from baby monitors to industrial sensors can be weaponized. In recent years, security researchers have tracked IoT botnets being rented out on underground markets, where attackers sell “DDoS-for-hire” services powered by infected smart devices.

The risks go beyond denial-of-service attacks. IoT botnets can also be used to mine cryptocurrency, steal sensitive data, or serve as entry points into larger corporate networks. And since many IoT devices operate quietly in the background, users often don’t realize they’ve been compromised. A security camera streaming your driveway could also be streaming malicious traffic halfway across the world.

Defending against IoT botnets is tricky because responsibility is spread between manufacturers, businesses, and end users. Manufacturers must build stronger security into devices by default, while organizations need to segment IoT networks and monitor for abnormal traffic patterns. For everyday users, simple steps—like changing default passwords, applying firmware updates, and disabling unnecessary features—can make devices far less attractive to attackers.

The rise of IoT botnets is a reminder that every connected device is both a convenience and a potential liability. In the wrong hands, our smart homes and workplaces can become part of someone else’s cyber arsenal. The question isn’t whether IoT will define the future—it already has. The challenge is making sure that future is secure.