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posted by mrpg on Thursday December 22 2016, @09:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the Mirai-IoT-Botnet dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22 2016, @04:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22 2016, @04:03PM (#444742)

    Router updates would solve a big part of this.

    Yes, they would. The manufacturer of my router hasn't published a firmware update in almost 2 years. 2 years. I can't start to imaging all the vulnerabilities that haven't been fixed. As with most people here, I'm going to a self-managed router using opensource firmware, so I at least have a choice to upgrade or not.

  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday December 22 2016, @09:07PM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Thursday December 22 2016, @09:07PM (#444838) Journal

    I don't know about most people, but for me a router *should* be a dumb switch, the way it used to be. The multiple zones in one router is a nice suggestion, but I tend to think of using two routers to achieve that. And I've got to admit I don't update my router software, but the only things on it are my computer and my printer. So far I've avoided all IoT gadgets. And whenever I read one of these articles I congratulate myself for doing so. For that matter, I don't store financial information on my computer, or do internet banking. It just seems too risky an activity. But I can't avoid all risks. I *do* use a credit card. So every time I use it I know I'm exposing myself to risk. But you can't avoid risk. Storing money in the bank involves trusting the bank and the government (to certain extents). Carrying cash around involves trusting passing strangers. Etc. You decide where your payoff is, and for me the payoff of IoT has never seemed positive.

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.