Non-Secure, Backdoored IoT Devices Could Become Powerful Weapons For Rival Nations

[Lucian Armasu]

A cybersecurity think thank released a new report in which they warned that non-secure or backdoored IoT devices could one day be used as powerful weapons by rival nations. The authors suggested a move towards regulated and "secure-by-design" IoT devices.

Non-Secure, Backdoored IoT Devices Could Become Powerful Weapons For Rival Nations : Read more

 

[vijer]

Ha Ha, I can't get my laptop to consistently connect to various WiFi networks because of different standards, yet hackers can get my camera to attack with ease.

 

[tmtisfree]

When I see 'regulation' and 'security' in the same sentence, a 'You fool!' association pops in mind...

 

[COLGeek]

Beware the smart toaster!

Really though, why folks need some of this IoT stuff is beyond me. Just how smart do we need dumb devices to be?

Many who complain about privacy and security are the very consumers who buy into this tech (while every waking breath they take is spewed across social media).

Makes zero sense to me.

 

[firefoxx04]

I suppose it is too much to ask for the average person to put all their smart devices on a dedicated vlan with heavily redistricted internet access.

 

[blazorthon]

If I want a smart toaster, smart oven, smart anything else, I still don't see a good reason for these devices to have unrestricted internet access. Most of their functionality is mostly useful on a local network basis, not over the internet. Even then, they don't need to be able to access any websites, just a control device like my cell phone if I want to say turn on a coffee pot on my way home for company.

While that might not call for extreme encryption or anything like that, simply not letting the devices be capable of accessing anything else over the internet would solve most problems. Also, they can't DoS if they're forced to only be able to send/receive a limited number of packets per second, like, say, one? A coffee pot doesn't need a lot of internet bandwidth nor low latency to be turned off and on remotely.

That's what gets me about these IoT security problems. They're so incredibly simple to solve. Limit their capability in hardware/hardcoding to only be able to do what they need to be able to do and even if someone gets control of them, their malicious capabilities are diminished by many orders of magnitude. Make them only capable of connecting to the remote control device (cell phone) and they can't even be used to attack corporate or government interests, assuming corporate/government employees use separate work and personal phones like they're often supposed to. You generally can't exploit your way around a hardware limitation.

 

[virtualban]

Software based planned obsolescence.

 

[epdm2be]

Who invents those titles? And wth are you guys trying to accomplish? Mass-hysteria? Aren't you guys exaggerating this IoT-doomsay scenario a bit?

This site is still called Tom's HARDWARE, isn't it? Don't you have some proper hardware reviews to do instead of participating in these kind of intimidating dribble.
I expect this bs on The Register or Slashdot but not here!

Perhaps some of the commenters can point me to a site with more interesting tech-reviews than Tom's.

Perhaps you ought to fix your login page instead of this. Because I can't login with firefox (error 403) while it works fine with Iron (Chromium) :-(

 

[blazorthon]

Considering the start of IoT attacks hammered a huge portion of the internet's major sites, I'd say no, it isn't being blown out of proportion if IoT devices are going to greatly increase in number. If banks start getting hit regularly or anything like that, then some very serious problems will happen. How blown out of proportion is the majority of a population not being able to get their money for food or paying bills?

 

[Nakal]

FIREFOXX04 - You are assuming people know what a VLAN is...

 

[problematiq]

Who invents those titles? And wth are you guys trying to accomplish? Mass-hysteria? Aren't you guys exaggerating this IoT-doomsay scenario a bit?

This site is still called Tom's HARDWARE, isn't it? Don't you have some proper hardware reviews to do instead of participating in these kind of intimidating dribble.
I expect this bs on The Register or Slashdot but not here!

Perhaps some of the commenters can point me to a site with more interesting tech-reviews than Tom's.

Perhaps you ought to fix your login page instead of this. Because I can't login with firefox (error 403) while it works fine with Iron (Chromium) :-(

Working in information security, I worry more about the IoS/IoT (Internet of #$%^) than I do about credit card fraud.