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Author Topic:   Security of Connected Devices
PaulK
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Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.2


(1)
Message 1 of 7 (803112)
03-24-2017 5:46 AM


Since the serious discussion really didn't belong in "Loony of the Week"
Things to rememember
If it connects to the internet it can be attacked
Security isn't cheap - some cheap devices have appalling security
If it can't be updated security holes can't be fixed - and there will almost certainly be security holes
If it isn't updated security won't be fixed
But on the other hand:
The privacy threat is limited by device capabilities - cameras and voice recognition are the worst (voice recognition in particular relies on sending data to a remote server for processing). If you're worried about the fridge seeing you naked don't buy a fridge with a camera. That isn't hard (are there any fridges with cameras?)
But then again:
Insecure devices can be abused to mount massive denial-of-service attacks on websites. A camera can't do much on it's own, but hundreds of thousands of them add up. A responsible person would try not to contribute to that problem.
So the advice is:
Know what you want. Don't buy a "smart" device unless you are sure that you have a use for those capabilities
Know what you are getting. You should know what it does, what data it will send over the internet and how to set it up securely
Know the manufacturer. Do they spend the effort to get security right ? Do they support their devices ? And how long for ? If (when) a security hole is found what will they do to help ? Warn you ? Provide advice to avoid or mitigate the issue ? Provide a fix ? A timely fix ?

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Pressie
Member
Posts: 2103
From: Pretoria, SA
Joined: 06-18-2010


(2)
Message 2 of 7 (803115)
03-24-2017 6:50 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by PaulK
03-24-2017 5:46 AM


Yeah, but on the other hand, if my fridge could call the cops or the FBI or the CIA or the KGB or MI6 urgently when I'm attacked by some random intruders in my kitchen it would really be a good thing. What would be better would be that that some Black Hawk would lower their agents in a few minutes into my kitchen and kill the intruders before they kill me! All from the fridge spying in my kitchen. That would be great.
Edited by Pressie, : No reason given.
Edited by Pressie, : No reason given.
Edited by Pressie, : No reason given.

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jar
Member (Idle past 395 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 3 of 7 (803130)
03-24-2017 12:05 PM
Reply to: Message 2 by Pressie
03-24-2017 6:50 AM


Or a fridge that force feeds them the green lasagna that's sitting in the far back corner.

My Sister's Website: Rose Hill Studios My Website: My Website

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 Message 4 by Diomedes, posted 03-24-2017 2:50 PM jar has replied

  
Diomedes
Member
Posts: 995
From: Central Florida, USA
Joined: 09-13-2013


Message 4 of 7 (803143)
03-24-2017 2:50 PM
Reply to: Message 3 by jar
03-24-2017 12:05 PM


Or a fridge that force feeds them the green lasagna that's sitting in the far back corner.
Twenty bucks says that's the next thing Kelly-Anne Conway will claim. That and the spying microwaves.
Maybe my dryer is also secretly creating wormholes that send my socks to planet Xenu.

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jar
Member (Idle past 395 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


(3)
Message 5 of 7 (803147)
03-24-2017 3:59 PM
Reply to: Message 4 by Diomedes
03-24-2017 2:50 PM


Nah. I know the real answer there.
Socks breed under conditions of heat and high humidity so when you put them in the dryer two sock merge then split producing one sock and one coat hanger. Where did you think all the extra coat hangers came from as as well as what happened to the missing socks?
Edited by jar, : appalin spalling but ---> put

My Sister's Website: Rose Hill Studios My Website: My Website

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LamarkNewAge
Member (Idle past 739 days)
Posts: 2236
Joined: 12-22-2015


Message 6 of 7 (803188)
03-26-2017 9:29 AM


I wonder what if and how and for how much.
What if hard drive space got about 1 million times cheaper then could it become affordable to have multi frame per second video on all parts of the earth at once (as opposed to just a single frame every week or so as Google takes from space ) outdoors while WI FI gives indoor frames and imaging. I read Popular Science in around 2011 or so when they said that a nation wide Wi Fi network can come from cheap transmitters placed in every appliance to connect the signal seamlessly for every body in every place. That article was this decade but Wired had an article Your Dishwasher is Listening To You back around 1996. The Eric Snowden June 2013 revelations tend to frighten us when one learns that one revelation Glenn Greenwald documents is the government planting child porn on a person's computer to have a strong blackmail hand against the individual. I heard Greenwald say th at on C SPAN. I actually think that non stop camera rolling on a persons computer can actually see to it that a person can be found innocent in the case of contraband being found on a computer to show that the screen wasn't viewed by the owner of the computer despite possession of the image data. The first step is to admit that we have a problem to start with. This problem is the government itself. The second stage is to get to the point where we want to have video of the user of the computer in real time WITH the exact keyboard and mouse clicks videoed with real time screen recording simultaneously caught on 'film' so there can be a good solid chance of a defense against a hard charging government hell bent on prosecution. Then we can talk about storage costs to archive the video data.

Replies to this message:
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NoNukes
Inactive Member


(4)
Message 7 of 7 (803189)
03-26-2017 11:32 AM
Reply to: Message 6 by LamarkNewAge
03-26-2017 9:29 AM


Re: I wonder what if and how and for how much.
What if hard drive space got about 1 million times cheaper then could it become affordable to have multi frame per second video on all parts of the earth at once (as opposed to just a single frame every week or so as Google takes from space )...
Paragraphs, bro. Even if you don't want to organize this stuff, please hit the return key after 4 or 5 periods.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846)
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. Thomas Jefferson
Seems to me if its clear that certain things that require ancient dates couldn't possibly be true, we are on our way to throwing out all those ancient dates on the basis of the actual evidence. -- Faith
Some of us are worried about just how much damage he will do in his last couple of weeks as president, to make it easier for the NY Times and Washington post to try to destroy Trump's presidency. -- marc9000

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