Another reason why the IoT may not be that good an idea ...

[JorgeA]

Cyber attacks on industrial Internet of Things are on the rise

 

Previously, these industrial companies had systems that were securely locked down and not connected or accessible to the outside world. The Industrial internet of Things (IIoT) has changed all that though, with companies embracing the internet to leverage remote control and management on a global basis.

 

[...]

 

Dave Palmer, director of Technology at Darktrace also commented: "This marks a dangerous and long predicted shift in the targets of hackers where industrial control systems and basic infrastructure is at risk in addition to the banking and credit card attacks we are used to hearing about".

 

--JorgeA

[jumper]

The solution to guest wifi is to have a secondary Access Point (with its own password) that only provides Internet access.

Or offer to let them use your dial-up.

[JorgeA]

Smart TVs pose huge security risks

 

Most people would never even suspect that their television set could be hacked, yet this is happening, in research labs at least, with greater frequency. In one recent example, security company Avast demonstrated a hack of a Vizio Smart TV enabling root access to the TV’s underlying Linux operating system. Last year I also found that this flaw involving a maliciously crafted SSID value could be exploited with a USB device. After exploiting this flaw, the attacker has access to everything connected to the home network of their victim. Avast also demonstrated what a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacker (such as an intrusive government or ISP) could learn by monitoring network traffic from the TV set.

 

I want the dumbest TV I can get that still offers a high-definition picture.

 

Interesting to learn, though, that a TV might have Linux inside. Wonder if there's a way to run WINE on a TV set?

 

--JorgeA

[Drugwash]

I gave up TV and radio years ago - they're not only useless, they're dangerous through their manipulation of the truth in ways an honest person couldn't even imagine.

 

Actually I think there's a law of the Universe that makes everything try to compensate to get to an even balance. Therefore the smartest TVs will get the dumbest viewers and the other way around.

[Tripredacus]

I recall the original TiVos had linux on them, and there was some way using the remote to make it go to or boot to a prompt.

[jaclaz]

Interesting to learn, though, that a TV might have Linux inside. Wonder if there's a way to run WINE on a TV set? 

 

Most TV's nowadays have the one or the other version of Linux, why do you think they - unlike good ol' TV's - take a few seconds to switch on (actually boot), it is years that there is modified software for some of them, *like*:

http://samygo.tv/

 

And (JFYI), not exactly *news*, already been there:

http://reboot.pro/topic/9915-the-good-thing-is-that-engineers-never-stop-to-surprise-me/

 

jaclaz

[Guest]

Thanks for the SamyGO link, jaclaz. Some very useful information for me there.

[jaclaz]

Thanks for the SamyGO link, jaclaz. Some very useful information for me there.

Happy being useful .

 

Now, not really IOT related, but close enough , an address where you don't really want to live in Atlanta

http://fusion.net/story/214995/find-my-phone-apps-lead-to-wrong-home/

 

jaclaz

[JorgeA]

I gave up TV and radio years ago - they're not only useless, they're dangerous through their manipulation of the truth in ways an honest person couldn't even imagine.

 

Actually I think there's a law of the Universe that makes everything try to compensate to get to an even balance. Therefore the smartest TVs will get the dumbest viewers and the other way around.

 

LOL to that last one! 

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

I recall the original TiVos had linux on them, and there was some way using the remote to make it go to or boot to a prompt.

 

Knowing how to do that would have made it possible to play some appealing practical jokes on your friends and neighbors. 

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

 

Interesting to learn, though, that a TV might have Linux inside. Wonder if there's a way to run WINE on a TV set? 

 

Most TV's nowadays have the one or the other version of Linux, why do you think they - unlike good ol' TV's - take a few seconds to switch on (actually boot), it is years that there is modified software for some of them, *like*:

http://samygo.tv/

 

And (JFYI), not exactly *news*, already been there:

http://reboot.pro/topic/9915-the-good-thing-is-that-engineers-never-stop-to-surprise-me/

 

jaclaz

 

 

TBH, I had never given much thought to this -- probably nothing more profound than that it's "modern technology," like the water-saving dishwashers that don't clean.  

 

I will, however, take a look at that SamyGo project. We happen to have a Samsung TV. Even though we already have a Windows Media Center PC hooked up to it, it would still be really cool to record a show off the air onto a USB stick. And it would gain geek cred with my nerdy friends. 

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

What if actually God is playing an online game with the Devil and we are only fictitional characters in that stupid game…?

 

Great question. Maybe the whole universe is one big Wi-Fi network and we are all only executing commands from (really) far-off servers...

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

It's easy to convert a cheap webcam into a network backdoor

 

A new report details how a D-Link webcam can be converted into a network backdoor, thereby highlighting general concerns with Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

 

[...] 

 

 

"It is clear that D-Link only anticipated trivial corruption of the software like a failing flash RAM storage part or corruption on the network – it did not anticipate malicious software inserted either directly through a physical attack or through man-in-the-middle attacks over the internet. Putting persistent malware into a device when one has physical access to it is not novel or remarkable. The fact that our ecosystems are full of so many easily compromised devices and we have no idea which ones are trustworthy is the key problem."

 

 

--JorgeA

[jaclaz]

Not strictly IOT related, but "close enough":
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2443276/wtf-lenovo-protects-your-backdoor-security-with-a-really-really-really-bad-password

You may want to take note of the statement by the good Lenovo guys:

In a statement Lenovo did not apologise, but it did say that it would now start to follow industry standards for protecting people.

 

(bolding/highlighting is mine)

 

jaclaz

[JorgeA]

Your Smartwatch's Motion Sensors Can Reveal Everything You Type (Including Passwords)

 

You can now add smartwatches to the list of potential ways your private data could be leaked. Tony Beltramelli, a Master’s students at the IT University of Copenhagen, has shown that even your wearable could be used to compromise your privacy by tracking your every keystroke.

 

...Instead of verifying a user based on their keystrokes, he’s using their distinct typing patterns to blindly determine what exactly they’re typing. And given that the majority of the world’s keyboards are similarly-sized with the exact same alphanumeric layout (PIN pads as well) it’s not terribly difficult for an algorithm to take that seemingly random motion data from a smartwatch and figure out what keys are likely being pressed.

 

--JorgeA