Philips has rejected media claims that its smart LED bulb can be infected by viruses, making it vulnerable to hackers

A research led by Professor Adi Shamir from Weizmann Institute of Science examined the Hue bulbs' vulnerabilities to cyber threats. The study included a demonstration of an attack so that the company could develop a patch to enhance the bulbs' security.

Like Us on Facebook

Eyal Ronen and Colin O'Flynn, who also worked on the research, explained how a ZigBee wireless connectivity could be infiltrated by hackers. According to them, a single infected unit could allow hackers to perform a widespread attack on all existing lamps for a few minutes because of proximity.

Once the bulbs are under the hackers' control, they can be easily switched on and off, permanently bricked or exploited to conduct DDOS attacks. Bricking makes firmware disabled and cannot be reversed with reprogramming methods. A city's system if infiltrated may result in blackouts.

Before the publication of the findings, the electronics company had been informed and had patched the issue stating that "at no time was a virus created or used to infect any Philips Hue products." Consumers were encouraged to perform software update through the Philips Hue application.

"We have assessed the security impact as low given that specialist hardware, unpublished software and close proximity to Philips Hue lights are required to perform a theoretical attack," the company said.