The Internet of Things

I don't know. It's my opinion that we're paying for convenience with lack of security.

In the middle of a heat wave a malicious hacker or a maladjusted neighbor with a grievance will be able to turn your heating up to full blast, turn on your oven and all your stove top elements up to max and turn off your heat detectors and smoke detectors and hope it all goes into a pyrotechnic display.

But the sales people won't mention any of that when they're pocketing your cash.

When you are connected and your house is wired, if you have a modern refrigerator, hackers will be able to tell what you eat and where you shop, when you come and go and if you are home at that moment, And everything else that you do and know.

It's like having W10 connected to everything in your house.

You will have NO information security whatsoever unless you write something on a piece of paper, silently.

I guess sooner or later, we all gonna be like lab rats with this tech. There seem to be no going back to privacy and solitude.

It's a crap shoot, but odds are in your favor if you do a diligence of protecting yourself, odds aren't if you don't.

but still can be vulnerable either way.

GA. Absolute security of any system is only found offline, never to be interfaced with any online system in any way. Everything has to be done by "sneaker net" and even then, only when you have thoroughly virus-checked any file to be transferred. And of course, NONE of this description fits the IoT. Personally, I can't see any benefit to the IoT that I can't work out by myself, doing the necessary personal chores. And I don't want to live in my basement, in my underwear, never going out of my house. So I don't need that kind of "convenience".

When I did system security, and tested UNIX security packages, I knew that no matter how well they were designed, it only took one hacker getting lucky, if not skillful, to overcome all the work of all the programmers. And with 10,000 plus hackers working on it, THEY, collectively, NEVER SLEEP. So it's only a matter of time, no matter how good I am, or anyone else is, at keeping themout. That is still true. And the IoT will NOT improve that situation for anyone. So, nope, it ISN'T safe, and I doubt it will ever be. But I'll give you a GA for the clarity of your answer, and the fact that you offer the considered approach to it, and put your money, and your time, on the line, as support for your view.

You won't jump on it right away. I see no reason to ever jump on. Perhaps if I become totally disabled with no one to care for me, that might change. But as long as I, or someone in my home, can do what the IoT purports to do for me, and more securely, I won't ever be there.

It will be dependent and proportion to how much security you put in place! The more elaborate and extensive the safety guards implemented into the system will make it harder for any hacker to penetrate /break into!

It will be similar to how you secure your house, kind and number of locks or security device installed... The more with better quality security systems put in-place, will deter, making it harder for any prospective thieves /intruder(s) to break into! The longer /harder it takes to break any security measures, typically will impede and discourage any bad intent!

In short, don't make your system an easy prey!

And make it harder for the users to use and consume more resources. TANSTAAFL.

Possibly since trade-offs somehow do always present itself!

It is not true that the more complicated you make software by adding additional security the harder it is to hack. In fact the reverse is true, really simple code has less chance of containing the bugs and lazy code that can be exploited by hackers. Most applications today are not written from scratch. Programmers usually cut and paste large chunks of code and then add "glue logic" to make the chunks communicate with each other. This modern (lazy) method of programming has come about through a general downgrading of programmer skill levels, cost cutting and shortened time frames. If just one of those chunks has a flaw that can be exploited then the whole new program is compromised. And guess what. Flawed code does not come with a warning label attached and programmers rarely hold up their hand and shout "I have just written a load of insecure crap". Add to that really bad testing protocols and a legislative framework that does not penalize software companies for releasing and profiting from insecure programs. The software industry needs the equivalent of the drugs industry FDA that will not allow software to be sold if it does not meet agreed standards. Fines amounting to eight and nine digits would clean up the software industry but no government is going to impose fines on the industry for fear it will move elsewhere and the local economy will suffer as a result. The Iot missed a unique opportunity to break the cycle by sticking to "deterministic" software of the type found in PLCs. It is much simpler and less easy to hack, but the suppliers, in a rush to get to market, blared the edges with the type of code used in PCs and that let the hackers in. Their profit it would seam is more important than your security.

FDA-like entity to regulate, safeguard and assure quality? Rely on another federal agency? Are you really serious?

Okay, how about the POTUS?

What about him, the great Punster Of The United States?

One other thing to consider. Most of these systems work are cloud based. The company that operates and maintains the cloud needs to provide updates and of course support the cloud. What happens if the company goes under, or they decide that it's not adding enough to the bottom line on the earnings report, so they stop supporting it? You guessed it, you're stuck with something that doesn't work.

I read an article a few months ago (in Wired) about the Home Automation system owned by Google (a system owned by Wink). Now Wink is still in business, but the Home Automation system isn't being supported and their cloud is going off line. All the people who bought the system (I remember reading in the $300 range) now have another piece of plastic for the landfill. It's a two year old system that's no good!

I'll admit that I have a few devices that are IoT and they're pretty cool, but definitely not necessary for life.

1. We have a light controller - works great when we're out of town - we can randomly turn the lights on and off from an ap.

2. We have a camera system with audio. If there's movement in the house, the ap tells us. Also, it records both video and audio and stores it in the cloud. Again, great when we're out of the house or out of town. An added benefit is that we can also talk to our dog when we're out.

3. We have a garage door controller - tells us if we left the door open and we can remotely open or close the garage door.

4. We have a sprinkler system timer - works great when we're on vacation and we want to increase/decrease/stop our landscape watering.

5. We have an internet refrigerator. Okay, I know this one's a bit silly, but I thought it was a pretty cool thing to have. We keep track of things that we need to buy from the store and of course we can review the list in an ap. We can also see what's in the fridge on the ap. If we want to, we can even order food from a grocery service - we haven't done this, because the cost is high and we're not sure of the quality or if it'll come to us still cold - what happens if we're not home at the time of delivery?

6. I also set up a ZWave system, but I didn't use the controller. It's just a remote control operated system for now, since it's only controlling our whole house fan, lights in the garage and our patio lights. In the future as I add more devices, I'll hook it up to the internet.

I don't think that any of these IoT devices put us at much risk. The video camera - maybe. The garage door opener I can see being a potential problem. Though each system is different and if someone did break into the garage system, then our video cameras would pick them up. Since they're on different systems, a thief would need to know about both and also even if he did, how would he know that we don't have other systems in place (other cameras, alarm systems, etc). So, I feel that the risk is almost nil for what we have.

Many of the web-based devices have been shown to have internet facing access with default passwords. Enter "search for webcams" into Google for a hint of the vulnerability. Hackers can log on and use these devices as a hole into your home network. Enter "shodan" or "webcam" into the search bar at the Gibson Research Corporation for transcripts of the "Security Now" podcasts that show how easily these devices can open up holes in your home network. It appears that the safest way to use IoT devices is to have them on a separate router in your system to isolate them from direct access to the rest of your home network.

Home IoT is one thing, having that crap in a power generation plant makes me really nervous. I would trust the IoT about as far as I can throw it, and since I can't touch it, lay hands upon it, and if I could I could not lift the server, that is not even 1 mm.

I say this: Balderdash to the IoT, it will never be secure, and neither is thing of file sharing "in the cloud". Clouds will eventually evaporate, leaving the projector nothing to shine on. (an allusion to a vodka commercial).

This whole epoch is a domicile of cards built upon a single column of tube shaped cardboard about to be put under a hard vacuum. In other words, "it sux".

But there again, I am old guy, and I once thought of going up to the mountains to become a hermit (already a crab).

Agreed.

The cloud is a solution to a problem most of us never had.

I back up to external hard drives at home and work.

IoT is a hacker's dream.

I was switched to Word 365 at work and I hate it.

All the normal features I use are hidden. It is extremely SLOW compared to Word 2010.

And it's in the cloud.

It sucks.