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Canonical, maker of Ubuntu Linux and its Internet of Things variant, has discovered the obvious – that people cannot be trusted to secure their connected devices.
Thibaut Rouffineau, evangelist for Ubuntu Core and the Internet of Things, admitted late last week that developers and IoT device makers know people seldom update the firmware of connected devices. But, he argues, they probably don't realize how bad the security situation has become.
The distro maker says it surveyed 2,000 folks about how they dealt with connected devices. It found that less than a third of respondents (31 per cent) installed updates as soon as they were available. Some 40 per cent never knowingly updated their devices.
"In other words, consumers are leaving their devices open to exploits and hacks, from DDoS attacks to invasions of personal privacy or theft of personal data," said Rouffineau.
Why such disinterest? According to Rouffineau, almost two thirds of respondents felt that keeping software updated – their security – was not their responsibility.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22 2016, @09:30AM
These appliances replaced things in most homes that did not require further maintenence before. People (rightfully) expect replacements to be a drop-in solution.
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Thursday December 22 2016, @03:09PM
Well when you abstract and centralize the everloving shit out of things for long enough things like KISS and air gaps just start looking like a band and a shoe. Also I notice people expect things to "just work" more often now. Which still seems interesting and amusing to me when a lot of this stuff uses linux as a base kernel.
Not that I'm without guilt when it comes to contributing to this ecosystem clusterfuck in work and side projects alike. And I use Windows 10 for anything non-dev now. But yeah. I'm never going to have an IoT appliance for reasons stated. We still occasionally mess up on drop in software let alone this.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mcgrew on Thursday December 22 2016, @04:04PM
Also I notice people expect things to "just work" more often now.
We've always expected things to "just work", although some things have always needed some maintenance, like cars, you expect the fridge to keep your beer cold and your toaster to toast bread. The trouble is we expect certain things, like furnace thermostats, refrigerators, toasters, ovens, and other household appliances to work without much maintenance (e.g., changing the furnace filter).
We're not used to having to apply software updates to TVs, ovens, fridges, and so forth. It annoys me to no end when the thermostat flashes "change battery", because thermostats didn't used to have batteries.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday December 22 2016, @04:54PM
Back in the old days we just had a strip of metal that bent based on temperature! Damn kids, get off my lawn! :)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22 2016, @06:00PM
I still have one of those for my thermostat. Works like a charm.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22 2016, @10:49PM
In my day there was just a damper we opened or closed to control how much air the fire got.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by meustrus on Thursday December 22 2016, @03:30PM
They don't just expect it to be a drop-in solution because of history. That's how these devices were marketed.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?