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THE NUMBER OF appliances and items allowing you to connect and control them remotely has risen in recent times, the level of security afforded to these devices might not be up to scratch, according to a new report.
New research from HP found that the majority of IoT devices have “an alarmingly high average number of vulnerabilities per device.”
Looking at ten of the most popular IoT devices in areas like TVs, webcams, home alarms and remote power outlets, it found that these vulnerabilities ranged from “Heartbleed to Denial of Service to weak passwords to cross-site scripting.”
Of the devices looked at, 90% of them collected at least one piece of personal information via the device, the cloud or its mobile app, while 70% used unencrypted network services.
More worryingly, 80% of devices along with their cloud and mobile apps failed to require passwords of a sufficient length and complexity, while 70% allowed an attacker to identify valid user accounts through account enumeration.
All of the devices required mobile apps which could be used to access or control the devices remotely while most of them included some form of cloud service. HP didn’t specify what devices it looked at when conducting this research.
It’s predicted that by 2020, the number of IoT devices available worldwide will grow to 26 billion, according to research firm Gartner.
Despite these problems, the report says there’s still time to secure devices before the problem becomes more widespread and consumers are put at risk.
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I now have a smart washing machine & cooker. She did night classes
Prefer Heinz to HP really …
Tal,
I have a feeling that your cooker and washing machine may experience a mysterious malfunction tonight!!!
I dunno… but the hoover certainly wont be sucking anything up tonight.
Are they saying that someone could hack and turn on the immersion heater when I’m out of the house?!?
THE HORROR!!! HORROR!!!!!
Or turn mine on and charge it to your meter!
Ask GSOC, they know all about devices connecting to internet.
HP tell us this now?? 4 years after their wireless printers were exposed as having a major security flaw!!!
You can’t beat a good old cable connection. We have yet to see the effects if the amount of radiation in our houses. WI-FI, Cordless phones, Mobiles, WI etc etc.
It will be 30 yrs before we see the damage.
I wish I hadn’t read this.
It reminds me of reading one of the Snowden files that showed NSA and DARPA were experimenting with tapping into DVD players xboxes, TVs etc for spying
Your DVD player knows your considering disloyalty./it heard what you said about Snowden being a patriot.
Knock knock on your door two stern gentlemen in suits need to talk to you on “a matter of national security.”
“Are you involved with the Snowden leaks sir?”
How do they know..they won’t admit they do..it could b a coincidence..routine inquiry…
“Sir did you know treason is defined as giving aid and comfort to the enemy? That is what he’s done, supporting that would make someone an accessory you know?’
“No no err..Snowdens a traitor..a goddam traitor.I’d never support him.”
Agent 1 smiles “very good sir I’m sorry to have troubled you, we must have made a mistake”
” er yeh.guess so”
That’s the ‘chilling effect’ and that’s what this could turn into one day.
Snowden wasn’t saying Bush and Obama have dictatorial ambitions but that they’ve weakened the republics protections so much that later someone who does can ‘flip a switch’ and have a ready molded police state.
Whatever u may say to me about the EU or this or that court case as u did in the wikileaks story last night, were not turning into that, so my patriotic pride in Ireland’s republican/constitutional tradition remains.
So in other words, despite all the impossible to foresee technological advances, Orwell was on the money with the teleboxes. What a man!
It was the system, the beast, the nature of power without check that he was correct on more than anything. Any system like that will find the tools it needs.
So many out there think it can’t happen, were worrying about nothing. But if you told them in 2008-9 someone would be storing every keystroke they made on Facebook and Google and Skype on a massive server complex and could search your name finding everything you ever uttered online, even in private chats, they’d have called that Alex Jones style crazy. Yet here we are. Don’t be naive. Were in a very dangerous world now, and the US is turning into something very dark and unpleasant, step by step, little by littile.
Yes and no I’d say. The US is certainly becoming, if it hasn’t already become, the powerful beast. But this is in no small part associated with the fact that the US is a failed society. Forget what you see on TV shows which present this happy go lucky and surprisingly white image of the US, the place bordering on civil war without even having political motivations to do so. That said, I certainly don’t agree with their police state tactics or their world police outlook, but I wouldn’t let it worry me much either – they can find out all about me, my opinions and political beliefs, my opposition to their state and so forth, but the Irish state won’t extradite me or try me on some jumped up PATRIOT charges. The US is somewhere I look to with pity, but it don’t see much to fear. The UK on the other hand… well we have a tendency to copy them, and that is becoming the definition of an Orwellian style police state at this stage.
Agree re people’s attitudes to it all though, and it’s worrying how malleable public opinion appears to be. Look at the laws and rights infringements they have managed to get through in the US all in the name of national security & safety from non-existent terrorists (4 attacks, across 3 continents in 13 years is not a terrorist threat by any stretch) – even the most cursory glance at history should teach people that we always have more to fear from our own state than any enemy at the gates.
If you saw my original comment on the first wikileaks story you’ll see I’ve total confidence the Irish courts are not going to hand any of us over to a mad US police state.
I’m not worried about them pulling us down with them.
Its just sad to see a country I love and care about dying before my very eyes, abandoning the very things it was built on.
As to the terrorist threat, it’s certainly very real, AlQuada has chemical weapons, they’ve tried to get their hands on nuclear weapons, they are out there, but the NSA searching my facebook does not help find them. If they had a thread on someone and wanna watch them specifically the original system allowed them to get a warrant to do that.
If there’s no way to upgrade firmware, don’t buy it!
With Rasberry Pi and other low cost programmable solutions hitting the market, connected devices should also be upgradable. Of course, if it is upgradable the manufacturer should continue to support the product beyond the warranty period.
Pre Kit-Kat Android springs to mind.
have your say