<story><title>This is why people fear the Internet of Things</title><url>http://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/02/this-is-why-people-fear-the-internet-of-things/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bane</author><text>What concerns me, as somebody who has absolutely zero interest in internet connected thermostats or fridges or whatever, is that as IoT devices become more and more ubiquitous, I&amp;#x27;ll probably still end up with some kind of quasi-surveillance garbage in my house. Either because I didn&amp;#x27;t mean to purchase it, or because there was no alternative because in the future every under-sink garbage disposal requires a wi-fi connection or some nonsense.&lt;p&gt;Due to smart phones, computers and tablets, I already have all my internet habits being recorded, and half a dozen cameras and microphones all over the house.&lt;p&gt;Whats just as concerning is how many quasi-legitimate service providers, for reasons of people desperately trying to secure themselves from bad actors, end up finding technical solutions that are indistinguishable from malware and other kinds of network attacks&amp;#x2F;exfil techniques.&lt;p&gt;Argh, this is a stupid future, I want to go back and try again.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>krylon</author><text>Sadly, all of the IoT-devices I have read about so far are either deeply creepy (like that Barbie doll that records and transmits children&amp;#x27;s conversations to the mothership) or completely useless (like a razor that automatically orders new blades).&lt;p&gt;And given the mediocre job we have done with online security so far, one can easily think of half a dozen scenarios for the &amp;quot;IoT&amp;quot; (the term alone makes me cringe) to turn in to security nightmare. Think of the Windows malware wave of 2003, when you could not install XP on an internet-connected machine without catching some worm before the installation was finished; now think of billions of lightbulbs, fridges, thermostats and whatnot and how much thought their designers must have put into security. Unless we wise up soon, the future is going to become very &amp;quot;interesting&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I just remembered one useful device - a networked smoke detector that the fire department remotely query to see e.g. what parts of a building a fire has spread to and that can tell a central computer when its battery runs out. I could imagine this being really, really useful often enough that it&amp;#x27;s worth it. But still, the security concern remains. (IIRC, the smoke detectors were not connected to the internet and did not use regular Wifi, which would make sense - if my living room is on fire, my internet connection and wifi router probably aren&amp;#x27;t so much working as ... liquified.)</text></comment>
<story><title>This is why people fear the Internet of Things</title><url>http://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/02/this-is-why-people-fear-the-internet-of-things/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bane</author><text>What concerns me, as somebody who has absolutely zero interest in internet connected thermostats or fridges or whatever, is that as IoT devices become more and more ubiquitous, I&amp;#x27;ll probably still end up with some kind of quasi-surveillance garbage in my house. Either because I didn&amp;#x27;t mean to purchase it, or because there was no alternative because in the future every under-sink garbage disposal requires a wi-fi connection or some nonsense.&lt;p&gt;Due to smart phones, computers and tablets, I already have all my internet habits being recorded, and half a dozen cameras and microphones all over the house.&lt;p&gt;Whats just as concerning is how many quasi-legitimate service providers, for reasons of people desperately trying to secure themselves from bad actors, end up finding technical solutions that are indistinguishable from malware and other kinds of network attacks&amp;#x2F;exfil techniques.&lt;p&gt;Argh, this is a stupid future, I want to go back and try again.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gutnor</author><text>There was a link on HN(?) a few days back about a guy that was testing some LED Light Bulb.&lt;p&gt;Those light bulb are a bit clever as they need to plug into your wifi for remote control. He discovered that the plug was creating a new wifi network, with hardcoded simple password and security setting such that it exposed you internal network to an external attacker. I can&amp;#x27;t remember if it was calling home, but surely a future version will.&lt;p&gt;So yeah, you will eventually end up with something connected, light bulbs are connected now !</text></comment>