Digital Door Openers 0
If you are considering getting–or have already gotten–one of those web-based digital assistants and have all kinds of internet enabled gadgets and geegaws, you may want to think again. Two researchers at William and Mary have been investigating that stuff, and what they found is not reassuring. Here’s a bit:
The problem, Nadkarni and Poshyvanyk explained, is that a data store-based system provides hackers the ability to access all devices in the home, from light switches to security alarms. An adversary can compromise one low-integrity product, like a sprinkler or a third-party lighting app, and modify a data store variable that another high-integrity product, such as a security alarm, depends on. This can have a whole host of unwanted consequences.
This example is particularly telling for us, as we just got a new heating system which includes precisely the sort of function described above.
We opted not to get the app. Dammit, we are not so lazy that we cannot walk upstairs and push a button, for Pete’s sake.
Remember, as manufacturers rush to push out new digital gadgets, security is always an afterthought.
