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from the all-your-boink-detecting-mattresses-are-belong-to-us dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found an interesting story over at The Register about regulating the security of IoT devices:
Washington DC think tank the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology is calling for regulation on "negligence" in the design of internet-of-things (IoT) devices.
Researchers James Scott and Drew Spaniel point out in their report Rise of the Machines: The Dyn Attack Was Just a Practice Run [PDF] that IoT represents a threat that is only beginning to be understood.
The pair say the risk that regulation could stifle market-making IoT innovation (like the WiFi cheater-detection mattress) is outweighed by the need to stop feeding Shodan.
"National IoT regulation and economic incentives that mandate security-by-design are worthwhile as best practices, but regulation development faces the challenge of ... security-by-design without stifling innovation, and remaining actionable, implementable and binding," Scott and Spaniel say.
[...] State level regulation would be "disastrous" to markets and consumers alike.
Does the ability of a company to make money now outweigh the security of our digital homes and devices?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jmorris on Monday December 12 2016, @03:33AM
Does the ability of a company to make money now outweigh the security of our digital homes and devices?
Microsoft exists. Nuff said, that ship sailed long ago. How much productivity has been lost because it is still considered acceptable to connect a Windows PC to the Internet? How many corporate secrets plundered? Really, it is kinda pointless to be worrying about the horrors the IoT is going to unleash while we still allow the nightmare that has been and will be Windows to go on.
Should the IoT be permitted to exist in the horrid for envisioned, where every single electronic (and redefining a lot of things that to now haven't been and should not be) device connected 24/7 to one or more (or more likely most) corporate masters out in the cloud, reporting our every move? Of course not and I pity the fool who buys any of the shit. But it isn't the big problem and won't be for a long time. Before them and after Microsoft, Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) should be the ones to worry about. Especially since Android devices only get updates to their core OS at most once in their operating lifetime. (Nexus and a couple of other 'preferred' vendors excepted.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 12 2016, @04:26AM
I have a Lenovo Phablet. It shipped with Android 4.2.1, and is now running the most current version of Android. It has received regular updates during it's years of life, I'd say I get a major system update every 90 days or so.
So not every manufacturer is this way. FYI the phone was bought at Walmart carrier unlocked for $250. I don't think Walmart ever realized it was a phone, it was just sitting over in the tablets section. I was shocked when I found it. I was in Walmart the other day. It's still for sale, $125 now, and it's still sitting in the tablets section. I asked a Walmart employee about it and he swears it's just a tablet that can make Wifi calls. I showed him mine, showed him it's dual sim LTE and he didn't know what to make of it.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday December 12 2016, @01:20PM
The problem is they don't know they are fools. They simply see a cool remote controlled gadget and think about how cool and convenient it is. "Check this out, (taps phone, lights come on) How cool is that! Woah dude! thats sweet!" Never once thinking about how that IoT system works, only that it does cool stuff. They are blissfully unaware of its function. Shit, Amazon's echo has a slogan of "Always on, Always listening". Yet people freak out about spying Samsung TV's.
That long time isn't as long as you think. I already have one friend with two Amazon echo's, Wink hub and has most of his homes lights controlled by the system. There are already plenty of Zwave/Zigbee light switches and bulbs on the market. It's only going to be a few more years before more and more people invest in these systems and they become more mainstream.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday December 12 2016, @03:39PM
Stupid needs to hurt, as pain is the only way most people are capable of learning. So no, I do not pity the fool who buys an Amazon Echo. Raise your hand if you don't already see the inevitable backlash that will see every Echo in a landfill. It listens to everything said in range of the mic. How long until a court order hits Amazon for access to the records we all know it keeps in perpetuity? Nobody sees that one coming? Really?
(Score: 1) by DeVilla on Friday December 16 2016, @05:15AM
Man has known
And now he's blown it
Upside down and hell's the only sound
We did an awful job
And now we're just a little too late