171–180 of 325 posts
The title is implying that Android is the culprit here, and not just a horrible design and implementation.
* "I stayed in a hotel with Android lightswitches and it was as bad as you'd think "
Another title would be:
* "CoreOS security developer stays in a hotel, and hacks the light switches to.."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the implication was that some asshole can obtain photos of you sleeping by opening the curtains and switching on the lights in the middle of the night. A nuisance, sure, but also a massive violation of privacy.
> the implication was that some asshole can obtain photos of you sleeping by opening the curtains and switching on the lights in the middle of the night. So, somebody is going to set up shop across the way, in what is probably another commercial building, commit a couple of crimes, all to take a picture of some random, likely unidentifiable person sleeping in a hotel bed? Personally, I'm not very worried about that.…
Turning lights on at 3 a.m. is a nuisance. Knowing when lights go on and off can tell you when the people are not in their room - which could help if you wanted to break in and steal their stuff. Overall quite disconcerting how lax they are with security.
Turning the lights on a 3am is a nuisance. Writing while true; do turn_on_all_lights $IPADDRESS; done is enough to ruin your night's sleep. Fighting with the lights that won't go off will probably pump enough adrenaline into your system to wake you up enough that you're not going back to sleep anytime soon. And why not do that to the entire block of addresses you can reach, of course? It's no "steal identity, rack up…
Your're not wrong, but the other point is they are swatting a fly with a sledgehammer. What wrong with a simple light switch for gods sake. Why would a hotel spend hundreds of dollars to do what a $2 device can do more reliably and securely?
It’s not just this light switch – Android refrigerators, Android ovens, Android washing machines are all using a wildly inappropriate operating system for single-purpose devices. The problem is likely that it’s a lot easier to develop for Android than it is for a proper embedded OS: It’s faster, the commodity hardware is easy to procure, licensing fees are minimal to none, and it’s easier to hire developers.
The first company to bring to market a more IoT-appropriate, yet accessible combination of operating system and SoC reference designs stands to become a massive player when IoT goes mass-market.
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Did you keep a straight face while you suggested that people actually upgrade firmware?
Keep in-mind that we're talking about always connected devices. Firmware updates could be done remotely without the end user needed to do anything, except perhaps give his approval.
I feel like I'm missing out on a huge bulk of money simply because when I have ideas of "Internet of Things", I cant get over the security obstacles and cancel the ideas. If only I just didn't care (or didnt know) and just implemented whatever the heck brought in money from oblivious customers.
I'm amused by the use of Modbus. I worked on Modbus networking back in the 1980's at Modicon (a company that disappeared long ago that created the "standard"). Using a protocol invented before the internet to control devices on a semi-public network is insane. The original Modbus was designed to communicate with factory devices controlled by logic controllers over serial and eventually over a custom token ring networ…
Using Modbus may be insane, but Internet Protocol (IP) predates it by 5 years.
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> wasn't worth buying in the first place Hence my shoutout to IoS! :)
Sure, I'll tag along. Problem is in a few years you may not have a choice because all fridges will be Internet-enabled by default. It's already happening with TVs where 70% of new sets are smart TVs. And you know, personally I don't mind because if it bothers me too much I'd just make sure that the damn thing never gets online access but I doubt the average consumer could go in such lengths. So instead of moaning and…
Which might be quite a challenge with some devices when your neighbors drown you in free WiFi.