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CloudPets teddy bears leaked and ransomed, exposing kids' voice messages

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Re: CloudPets teddy bears leaked and ransomed, exposing kids' voice messages

#61

Post by komali2 »

simplemath wrote: post #8

IoT should die a swift and permanent death. Alas, that wont happen.

Seriously? That's a fairly aggressive comment to just throw out there without any backing arguments.

You really can't think of anything valuable about hooking up small devices/sensors to the internet? Do you really believe the potential for stronger security is so low that it's not worth investigating?

I work at an IoT company and we take security far more seriously than some would say is necessary or even reasonable. We're not the only ones out there, you just don't hear about us because our stuff works and therefore doesn't make the news. Just like you don't hear about all the miles an automated car drives safely.

Re: CloudPets teddy bears leaked and ransomed, exposing kids' voice messages

#63

Post by Taek »

Is there a fine for this? Some sort of punishment? Companies need to be taking security seriously, we are all paying the price.

Internet-of-Shit will remain exactly that until neglecting security is a substantial threat to the bottom line of a company.

They ignored multiple warnings? Got hacked multiple times? This is negligence, and this company should be fined out of business.

Re: CloudPets teddy bears leaked and ransomed, exposing kids' voice messages

#64

Post by ajmurmann »

wyager wrote: post #46
r1ch wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company was tanking and they were looking to make a quick buck. What market motivation would they have to spend extra time and money securing it properly? This is a fine example of why we need IOT regulation.

> This is a fine example of why we need IOT regulation. Cool, let's just inundate the industry with pointless government "security" checklists that don't actually accomplish anything. That way, instead of a small fraction of all the cool, affordable products we now have access to occasionally getting hacked, we can just not have any cool, affordable products except those made by companies big enough to hire enough co…

I agree that regulating this will just cause security theater. However, it's also unreasonable to expect non-technical consumers to understand what's going on and what the implications of their choices might be for any given IoT device. Many probably would have a hard time deciding what devices are even IoT. Maybe this is a gap that could instead be filled by a consumer review product service that focuses on IoT devices and their security. I expect that the general public didn't care enough though to make this viable. Maybe once more toys got compromised...

Edit: I also wonder if stronger punishments for people involved in extreme cases like this would help. If you make a reasonable effort to secure your service and get hacked anyway that's one thing. But not even attempting to secure your service at all is something you shouldn't get away with. Of course the problem is how "reasonable effort" would be interpreted legally.

Re: CloudPets teddy bears leaked and ransomed, exposing kids' voice messages

#65

Post by ghaff »

wyager wrote: post #46
r1ch wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company was tanking and they were looking to make a quick buck. What market motivation would they have to spend extra time and money securing it properly? This is a fine example of why we need IOT regulation.

> This is a fine example of why we need IOT regulation. Cool, let's just inundate the industry with pointless government "security" checklists that don't actually accomplish anything. That way, instead of a small fraction of all the cool, affordable products we now have access to occasionally getting hacked, we can just not have any cool, affordable products except those made by companies big enough to hire enough co…

I don't necessarily disagree but I will note that Bruce Schneier, who so many people on these pages are a big fan of, was basically advocating for government regulation at a recent conference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tDU0zcptCY&index=2&list=PLb...

Re: CloudPets teddy bears leaked and ransomed, exposing kids' voice messages

#66

Post by f_allwein »

Taek wrote: post #63

Is there a fine for this? Some sort of punishment? Companies need to be taking security seriously, we are all paying the price. Internet-of-Shit will remain exactly that until neglecting security is a substantial threat to the bottom line of a company. They ignored multiple warnings? Got hacked multiple times? This is negligence, and this company should be fined out of business.

Judging from other comments, it seems they're on the way out anyway. But the question of fines etc. is interesting...

Re: CloudPets teddy bears leaked and ransomed, exposing kids' voice messages

#68

Post by janwillemb »

Apart from the total disaster these kind of incidents are, they serve a valuable purpose: material to educate my children about security. It is surprising to see how quickly my 9-year old daughter picks up the message, especially by these kind of stories.

Re: CloudPets teddy bears leaked and ransomed, exposing kids' voice messages

#69

Post by cm2187 »

> The Germans had a good point: kids' toys which record their voices and send the recordings up to the web pose some serious privacy risks. It's not that the risks are particularly any different to the ones you and I face every day with the volumes of data we produce and place online (and if you merely have a modern phone, that's precisely what you're doing), it's that our tolerances are very different when kids are involved

It's a bit paradoxical. There are way less things a kid can say that can get him in trouble than an adult. Even the most oppressive regime will not hold what a 4yo toddler says against him. The need for privacy should rather be less for a kid than for an adult.

What it means is that violations of privacy are creepy, period. We try to rationalise it by arguing that we get something out of it, but when dealing with our kids, we stop believing our own bullshit and it is just becomes purely creepy...

Re: CloudPets teddy bears leaked and ransomed, exposing kids' voice messages

#70

Post by Animats »

"CloudPets can send and receive messages from anywhere in the world! Buy Now".[1] They delivered on that, all right.

If you want one, they're now available for the low, low price of only $3.[2] Including WiFi.

[1] https://cloudpets.com/ [2] https://www.hollar.com/products/as-seen-on-tv-cloudpet-dog

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