The NSA (National Security Agency) is funding development of an architecture for a "safer" Internet of Things (IoT), in the hope of incorporating better security at a product's design phase.
The controversial US intelligence agency is bestowing a $299,000, one-year grant to the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) for a project that aims to build a lightweight virtualisation architecture which will make it easier to build security into IoT systems before they leave the factory.
There are some interesting reactions to the announcement on the Sophos Naked Security blog.
Why would the NSA invest in a project that would make it harder for them to spy on you?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mcgrew on Thursday August 20 2015, @12:25PM
I don't WANT my things on the internet. I don't want a hackable TV, I want the computer to just send a picture to it and sound to the stereo. I have no need to adjust my fridge or air conditioner when I'm not home. I see very little upside to an "internet of things" and huge downsides.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 3, Touché) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday August 20 2015, @01:03PM
I don't want a hackable TV
I do. But I don't want anyone else hacking it.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday August 20 2015, @03:24PM
Well, yes, anything's hackable if it's in your hands. When I was a teenager I made guitar fuzzboxes out of broken transistor radios. But I don't want it remotely hackable.
I'm still running XP on one computer, so of course the network cable is unplugged. It's no longer remotely hackable, so it's sill usable with sneakernet (I burn CDs with it, and I haven't found decent burner software for Linux).
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Friday August 21 2015, @04:10AM
Have you tried Windows 7 Tiny? It only uses 145Mb of RAM on the desktop and is less than 2GB installed so it will run quite well even on seriously old hardware. The oldest hardware I tried it on was a P3 with IIRC 640Mb of RAM, the result? The majority of the OS ran in RAM, it was quite zippy, and because its Win 7 you can use a modern free AV and the latest browsers without having to hack it. Its quite nice.
As for TFA after all the shit we have found out about them doing everything from bribing RSA to listening in on the backbone why shouldn't we treat anything they do as about as desirable as a plague blanket? They have done nothing to show us they should be trusted and plenty to show us they should not so unless we see concrete proof to the otherwise? The only prudent thing to do is assume whatever they are working on is a security risk and avoid it, its as simple as that.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 20 2015, @02:45PM
Every TV is hackable. If you don't believe it, take an axe and try for yourself. ;-)