I don’t use a smart toothbrush, but I use Smart Floss, which I highly recommend.

I subscribed to NewsBreak after a friend showed me an article about a unique house in our area, built into the rocks, on the app. I had never heard of NewsBreak before. Now, it interrupts my day with local stories as well as breaking news like this one below:

3 million smart toothbrushes were just used in a DDoS attack. Really

What’s next, malware-infected dental floss? But seriously: It’s a reminder that even the smallest smart home devices can be a threat. Here’s how to protect yourself.

Written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols, Senior Contributing Editor

Feb. 6, 2024 at 12:48 p.m. PT

It sounds more like science fiction than reality, but Swiss newspaper Aargauer Zeitung reports that approximately three million smart toothbrushes were hijacked by hackers to launch a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. These innocuous bathroom gadgets — transformed into soldiers in a botnet army — knocked out a Swiss company for several hours, costing millions of euros in damages.

No, we’re not kidding. 

https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/smart-home/3-million-smart-toothbrushes-were-just-used-in-a-ddos-attack-really/

That story is so wild! Who would think someone could commandeer toothbrushes to take a website down on the internet? Apparently, the toothbrushes used JAVA and were used to take down a Swiss company’s site.

Maybe those stories about our microwaves spying on us are true after all?

Have you heard about the toothbrushes gone wild before?
What appliances do you own that are considered smart?

As for the SMART FLOSS, as the daughter of a dentist, I think it’s the best floss I’ve used in my life. It’s a twisted rope with cardamom flavor and cleans my teeth and gums better than any other floss. You can buy it on Amazon or Whole Foods, of course. As for a toothbrush of the old-fashioned kind that won’t commit a cyber attack, my dad recommended Oral-B, soft bristles.