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Why Don't People Secure Their IoT Gadgets? 'It's Not My Problem'

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

Phoenix666 writes:

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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Original Submission

• Re:internet of THINGSRe:internet of THINGS (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday December 22 2016, @05:34PM

  by TheRaven (270) on Thursday December 22 2016, @05:34PM (#444771) Journal

  The question is why people are buying them. Are they buying them because the manufacturers bundle services with them from people who pay them, making them cheaper than the dumb versions? Are they buying them because they see the word 'smart' and think that must be better than 'dumb'? Are they buying them because they actually want the features that they provide? Are they buying them because the shop doesn't have any dumb variants in stock? I'd guess that a very small percentage are buying them because they actually want the features and, of those, an even smaller proportion understand the negatives (obsolescence from lack of updates, attack surface on their home network, dependence on third-party services, and so on).

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• Re:internet of THINGS(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday December 22 2016, @05:38PM

  by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday December 22 2016, @05:38PM (#444772)

  Are they buying them because the shop doesn't have any dumb variants in stock?

  Yeah, I wonder how much this is a factor. Like the last time I was looking to buy a car: huge lot and they had IIRC 4 manuals.

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