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A WiFi connected tea kettle, the iKettle, was recently tested by Pen Test Partners and found severely lacking, spewing forth WiFi access codes for encrypted networks to unencrypted clients with just a few tricks. As reported by geek.com:
Ken Munro, a researcher at Pen Test Partners, recently took to the stage in London to show off what he and his co-workers discovered. Their mark was the iKettle, which was proclaimed "the world's first WiFi kettle" by its creators on the crowd-funding site Firebox.
He was able to trick the kettle into connecting to an unencrypted WiFi network just by giving it the same name as the encrypted network it was originally connected to and using a directional antenna to make sure the signal was loud and clear. Once they'd hijacked the wireless connection, Munro and his partner were able to convince the iKettle to spill the key for the encrypted network.
All it took was two little commands sent via Telnet. And being the helpful little kettle that it is, it even handed Munro the key in plain text.
Original Story: http://www.geek.com/news/connected-kettles-found-brewing-up-security-problems-1637249/
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday October 21 2015, @01:49PM
It amazes me that anyone takes a connected teapot seriously. It's a frigging TOY. It's a mindless bit of crap, prettied up and packaged for juveniles. Young juveniles at that - by the time a kid is 14, 15 years old, they should be past this kind of nonsense. "Oh, my teapot is cool, I can turn it off and on from down the street!" Mindless drivel. "I can monitor my refrigerator from out of state!" "I can turn my fire alarm off and on from anywhere!" Simple minds are fascinated with simple gadgets.
Crap. What am I talking about? These are the people who watch reality shows. They think the Kardashians are somebody. The kind of people who purchase a couple thousand dollars worth of fancy rims, to mount on a car that isn't worth $1000. Yes, of course these people are going to pay big money for mindlessly stupid baubles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 21 2015, @03:32PM
Even and especially a toy should not cause severe risk to the owner/user.
It's like saying: "Oh, this has lead paint? Well, it's just a toy, so who cares?"
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday October 21 2015, @03:45PM
That was business as usual, 40 years ago or less. It's still business as usual in China today. Don't buy your Christmas presents from China, unless you actually want to get rid of your kids.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday October 21 2015, @04:20PM
The problem we have is that most basic appliances can be built to be reliable and shipped from the other side of the world for a pitiful amount of money.
Companies, which have to comply to the Almighty God of Growth and the "we build cool stuff" ego of their owner, have to keep throwing in features to keep charging more for the superficial customers. At this point, most new features are silly, but they're a lot cheaper and more marketable than ever-shrinking efficiency gains (which sadly don't interest most).