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The Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly changing technology that could soon have the power to shape the way we live our lives.

According to a new report from security firm FireEye, more than half of the world’s connected devices are now running software from a handful of companies that are largely unknown outside of the tech community.

The report, released Tuesday, says that almost half of all IoT devices were shipped with a “non-standard vendor” that wasn’t vetted by major vendors and didn’t adhere to best practices.

That includes a vast number of the smaller IoT manufacturers that have sprung up in recent years, with FireEye finding that more than one-third of these devices were running the IoT vendor of their choice.

The vast majority of these “nonstandard vendors” were found to have zero-day vulnerabilities in their software, meaning they were potentially vulnerable to being hacked.

FireEye has been tracking IoT vendors since 2014 and has found at least 6,000 IoT devices that weren’t vetted or certified.

The number of IoT devices being shipped with non-standard vendors is expected to rise over the next five years, according to FireEye.

“There’s no doubt that IoT devices are evolving in a rapidly growing ecosystem,” the report stated.

“These companies are working in the shadows, creating products for companies that have no idea what they’re doing.

While we’re not yet ready to fully assess the extent of the vulnerability threat posed by non-approved IoT vendors, it’s clear that these vendors are being used in malicious ways.”

It was also found that a small number of these vendors had already been found to be involved in widespread attacks on the Internet.

The largest number of malicious IoT devices found were found in China, with more than 5,000 devices being found to use a company called KDDI.

The company’s CEO and cofounder, Zhe Yang, was arrested in the United States in October for his alleged role in the attack on the DDoS network.

FireSource reached out to Zhe for comment and will update this story when we hear back. 

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