Why Do Keynote Speakers Keep Suggesting That Improving Security Is Possible?

I believe HomeKit devices are a great example of devices that can almost be perfectly secured. A lot of IOT devices support multiple IOT platforms, for example the Philips Hue supports IFTTT, Google Home, Amazon, and of course HomeKit, but the first three options only allow your IOT devices to work in your home with permanent wide area network access. Latency issues aside, this is bad for security because it simply opens more attack vectors to your devices, and relies on third parties to manage your security. What's the benefit of relying on Amazon to manage your IOT devices? Well for the average Joe, it means he won't have to buy a home "hub" (Apple TV/iPad) for allowing remote access of some sort, and also the setup process is generally easier. Problems arise because the IOT device is now responsible for accessing the Internet, and has to contain a much larger codebase.

HomeKit's design is that each IOT device will talk to your local devices, i.e. an iPhone, an iPad, an Apple TV. If and only if you set up an iDevice as a home "hub", do you allow remote access. HomeKit is keeping it modular, which means that if a serious bug is found in remote access code, then you can be confident that Apple will update the Apple TV's firmware, as opposed to an IOT device from a will-be-bankrupt company.

Now what if you have a rogue device on your local network that is hacking other devices? Well this is where a firewall, as Mickens' suggests in his talk, can help. Keep in mind that this is a problem for any style of IOT device, and can only really be protected using a firewall. You can actually create something called a bridging firewall that inspects each packet passing through it's network interfaces. Currently, I've bought a small WiFi router from MikroTik just for this purpose (only 25 USD). All of my IOT devices (and my less secure devices like printers and audio receivers) are plugged in or associated with my MikroTik device, and the bridging firewall acts as follows:

a) drops ethernet packets sent to my main router's MAC address This stops any WAN access

b) drops ethernet packets sent to my home server's MAC address, except for port 67-68 Allows DHCP

c) drops packets sent to any other IOT device

And that's it! I can generally assume my Linux Desktop and my MacBook are secure enough. A few reasons why this is not overkill. First, it separates my two networks without using any VLAN nonsense (and avahi/Bonjour nonsense), and creates a powerful firewall in between the two. Second, it allows my IOT WiFi network to have a different password from my home WiFi network. Third, it doesn't slow down my main router's WiFi speed, and I would hate to have a 802.11g device slowing down my wireless network. Fourth, I believe the firewall can be set up to stop ARP spoofing.

Finally, HomeKit devices are the few IOT device standards that allow you to truly own a device. In fact, after buying the device, you can set up your own local HomeKit Controller in Python (https://github.com/jlusiardi/homekit_python) meaning you don't need to buy anything at all from Apple.

All real used car markets have multiple layers of either testing and warrantying (which solves or reduces the asymmetry to a manageable level), legal remedies (many states have 'lemon laws' that push liability back to the seller), or are filled with sophisticated buyers (e.g. car auctions) who can actually tell which car is a 'lemon' because they bring a trained mechanic who will inspect the car in person.