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Ross Anderson in the Security Group at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory asks some questions about whether durable goods such as cars can be Internet-connected and yet provide sufficient privacy and safety. It's not a deep discussion but it does raise a few other pertainent questions.
Perhaps the biggest challenge will be durability. At present we have a hard time patching a phone that's three years old. Yet the average age of a UK car at scrappage is about 14 years, and rising all the time; cars used to last 100,000 miles in the 1980s but now keep going for nearer 200,000. As the embedded carbon cost of a car is about equal to that of the fuel it will burn over its lifetime, we just can't afford to scrap cars after five years, as do we laptops.
Meters and medical devices are two more examples of hardware that can cause great harm when control of the integrated software is taken over by malfeasants.
Source : Making security sustainable.
and Making Security Sustainable: Can there be an Internet of durable goods? (warning for PDF)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Thursday March 08 2018, @03:58AM (3 children)
*THEY DECIDED.*
They turned off the towers, of course your phone quit working. That has nothing to do with it. The phone itself had no problem, it would have kept right on working.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:03AM (2 children)
Wasn't that exactly his point? His various phones contused to work till the day the carriers ceased to support that type of cellular connection, probably because that radio type was uneconomic.
Kind of like Leaded Gasoline. That 60's era vintage car is just going to have to be tuned to deal with it.
As long as cars with internet connections can operate without that connection, (such as in cellular dead zones), and the radio system can be changed out, there shouldn't be a problem.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 08 2018, @01:55PM
Before I signed up for my first cellular service, I bought a pair of tri-band Ham handhelds. They were good for making contact with the SO when she picked me up at the airport, and out in the woods there was a repeater tower that could call in to town and maybe summon an ambulance if required.
20 years later, those handhelds still work like they always did (though the batteries are NiCad and a bit weak, could spring for a LiPo version today if I cared) - and they only cost about as much as one year's cellular contract.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Thursday March 08 2018, @02:58PM
Meaning they calculated they could make more money by forcing 'upgrades' to even shittier 'phones' in the process? The ones that spy on the customer for ad-server kickbacks?
The word you're looking for is not 'uneconomic' it's 'unkleptocratic.'
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?