Cyber attack via "smart" refrigerator

MrAgent

Can't say I didn't see this coming.

Connected TVs, fridge used in global cyberattack - CNN.com

veritas_libertas

Yeah. I saw that last week. This is only going to get more insane as more devices become "smart". Good grief, now you DoS someone's thermostat or refrigerator Ah well, it keeps us employed

cyberguypr

There was an article the other day on Ars Technica about what and enormous potential for exploit the Internet of Things is creating. It focused on how many manufacturers web-enable all sorts of crap just to let them hanging out there with little or no updates being pushed. Truth is the average consumer is all excited to see his fridge temp online and doesn't care about security. Like veritas said, more opportunities for us IT geeks.

TechRadar gave it a better, more suitable name: Internet of Bad Things.

BGraves

^ There's a fridge that can show it's temp online.....?

Good grief...

YFZblu

cyberguypr wrote: »

It focused on how many manufacturers web-enable all sorts of crap just to let them hanging out there with little or no updates being pushed.

Combine this with a culture of punishing and/or not properly rewarding security researchers who discover vulnerabilities, and things get pretty scary.

veritas_libertas

cyberguypr wrote: »

TechRadar gave it a better, more suitable name: Internet of Bad Things.

Okay, that's just epic.... LOL

I have to say that I get excited every time I see something ubiquitous and usually boring like a thermostat or fire detector gets a NIC/WNIC. I like new toys as well.

cyberguypr

Whirlpool app:

JaneDoe

I saw a tweet about this last week that said: 'In 2030 we won't ask 'did your remember your toothbrush?' but 'did you remember to pentest your toothbrush?''

docrice

There's a marketing trend to label things as "smart" and give them functionality tied to the Internet ("the cloud"). While this has its problems, there are also benefits gained from this added functionality such as real-time alerting, proactive suggestions, dashboards, trending, etc..

The big downside I see is that most manufacturers treat these as a way to keep up with the other Joneses in the market and not really understand the negative ramifications and skimp on the software development (including all the security revivew that goes with it). We're still in a rather immature phase of Internet-enabled devices and it's only going to get more complex and intertwined, which in one sense is scary from a security point of view, but it's also exciting at the same time. Convenience, privacy, speed, security ... all these things make life more interesting.

tpatt100

Yeah all these devices won't be properly supported, forgotten about, etc. I think by themselves the risk is slight but from a James Bond perspective collectively they can be exploited for footprinting spy targets.