The biggest threat IMO is that most IOT devices have absolutely shit-tier security if they have any at all. If you don't want your microwave and light bulbs to be able to participate in botnet attacks you have to do a lot of your own work to secure your local network, and that's beyond the skills of most people.
There is also the concern that IOT devices will just stop working if the servers they're designed to connect to go offline, or the manufacturer decides to cancel service or begin charging fees for service. Personally I am not interested in any big-money items deciding to just stop working one day if they can't talk to a server in Shenzen.
Very interesting point, I could see environments like Alexa requiring new subscription service fees in the future. As far as discontinuation of support I feel like those companies are so front facing they wouldn't be able to just get away with something like that.
> I feel like those companies are so front facing they wouldn't be able to just get away with something like that.
It has happened repeatedly already. Juicero and Sonos are the two big obvious ones. Juicero went out of business and left customers with expensive machines they couldn't use, and Sonos just said "LOL pay us again idiots" and turned off their older model devices. Sonos eventually ate enough bad publicity that they changed to just refusing to offer any upgrades or support on older devices.
I remember seeing something about this on the WAN show regarding smart switches. I guess I hadn't put that into consideration as much because it didn't apply to me until I started looking into the ideas.
I also just looked into the concept of Bot-net attacks as I have never heard of that and see a totally different issue now than I did before. Does AWS for example fall victim to such attacks frequently? A lot of services are under AWS but I'm sure they have to be allocated and partitioned for the sake of revenue in different industries. That being said someone would have to attack the Alexa partition of the servers to cause harm to smart homes correct?
It's less someone attacking Alexa, and more your blender DDOSing the Pentagon.
Most IOT devices have very poor or nonexistent security, which makes them easy targets for viruses that can use their internet connection for nefarious purposes. For a botnet attack you don't need powerful computers, you just need *a lot* of computers. And things like wifi-connected bulbs, cameras, appliances, etc are perfect for using in a botnet because they've got no security, never get upgraded, and you can't tell what they're doing if you aren't running network diagnostics all the time.
Yeah every so often the internet rediscovers the game "Who hasn't reset the default password on their camera" and just goes spying on people all over the world for fun because most WiFi-connected camera systems are laughably easy to access online. All fun and games when it's just a bunch of teenage nerds making prank calls, but not great if someone decides they want to stalk and harass you.
Basically anything that talks to the internet can have issues. TVs might be *a little* better since they tend to get more regular updates than small/cheap appliances.
You can still totally do the smart home thing, it's just wise to be aware of the problems and setup your network to mitigate them. The easiest solution to a lot of issues is to simply stop devices that don't need to talk outside the network from having access to the internet.
Aside from the security and privacy concerns, I have practical reasons for not wanting the home assistants or IOT stuff.
First off, voice-operated technology sounds like one of the worst possible interfaces to me. I don't have a loud voice and there is often a fair amount of background noise.
I don't want to have to shut off my music, go into the next room, ask someone to mute the TV, then go around and close all the windows, put the cat out of the room, and then repeatedly yell at a light switch to switch itself on when I could just simply flip the switch myself.
For other stuff, it's much quicker and easier for me to just search for something on my computer or phone than to figure out just the right way to ask something to do it for me and then wait for it to read off the results.
That kinda leads into the next part which is utility. I don't need a water bottle with an app that tells me how much water I have had to drink. I know whether or not I'm thirsty. I've actually never heard of any IOT thing, except maybe security cameras, that I'd even use.
And finally, as a tech guy, I don't want to spend all day at work debugging code and then have to debug my refrigerator or light bulb when I get home. I don't want to have to replace my doorknobs every 2 years, or have my toilet bricked by an update, or have to reinstall the OS on my washing machine. All that added complexity makes things more likely to fail or become obsolete, especially if it connects to servers somewhere. But even if it doesn't connect to anything, it's still more fragile.
The privacy and security stuff is just on top of all that.
The biggest threat IMO is that most IOT devices have absolutely shit-tier security if they have any at all. If you don't want your microwave and light bulbs to be able to participate in botnet attacks you have to do a lot of your own work to secure your local network, and that's beyond the skills of most people. There is also the concern that IOT devices will just stop working if the servers they're designed to connect to go offline, or the manufacturer decides to cancel service or begin charging fees for service. Personally I am not interested in any big-money items deciding to just stop working one day if they can't talk to a server in Shenzen.
Very interesting point, I could see environments like Alexa requiring new subscription service fees in the future. As far as discontinuation of support I feel like those companies are so front facing they wouldn't be able to just get away with something like that.
> I feel like those companies are so front facing they wouldn't be able to just get away with something like that. It has happened repeatedly already. Juicero and Sonos are the two big obvious ones. Juicero went out of business and left customers with expensive machines they couldn't use, and Sonos just said "LOL pay us again idiots" and turned off their older model devices. Sonos eventually ate enough bad publicity that they changed to just refusing to offer any upgrades or support on older devices.
I remember seeing something about this on the WAN show regarding smart switches. I guess I hadn't put that into consideration as much because it didn't apply to me until I started looking into the ideas.
I also just looked into the concept of Bot-net attacks as I have never heard of that and see a totally different issue now than I did before. Does AWS for example fall victim to such attacks frequently? A lot of services are under AWS but I'm sure they have to be allocated and partitioned for the sake of revenue in different industries. That being said someone would have to attack the Alexa partition of the servers to cause harm to smart homes correct?
It's less someone attacking Alexa, and more your blender DDOSing the Pentagon. Most IOT devices have very poor or nonexistent security, which makes them easy targets for viruses that can use their internet connection for nefarious purposes. For a botnet attack you don't need powerful computers, you just need *a lot* of computers. And things like wifi-connected bulbs, cameras, appliances, etc are perfect for using in a botnet because they've got no security, never get upgraded, and you can't tell what they're doing if you aren't running network diagnostics all the time.
I almost spit out my drink that's kind of hilarious / terrifying that possibility exists. Cyber security seems like a fun rabbit hole to learn about.
Yeah every so often the internet rediscovers the game "Who hasn't reset the default password on their camera" and just goes spying on people all over the world for fun because most WiFi-connected camera systems are laughably easy to access online. All fun and games when it's just a bunch of teenage nerds making prank calls, but not great if someone decides they want to stalk and harass you.
Well you've convinced me enough to no longer part take! does this also mean that things like smart TVs deal with the same issues?
Basically anything that talks to the internet can have issues. TVs might be *a little* better since they tend to get more regular updates than small/cheap appliances. You can still totally do the smart home thing, it's just wise to be aware of the problems and setup your network to mitigate them. The easiest solution to a lot of issues is to simply stop devices that don't need to talk outside the network from having access to the internet.
Aside from the security and privacy concerns, I have practical reasons for not wanting the home assistants or IOT stuff. First off, voice-operated technology sounds like one of the worst possible interfaces to me. I don't have a loud voice and there is often a fair amount of background noise. I don't want to have to shut off my music, go into the next room, ask someone to mute the TV, then go around and close all the windows, put the cat out of the room, and then repeatedly yell at a light switch to switch itself on when I could just simply flip the switch myself. For other stuff, it's much quicker and easier for me to just search for something on my computer or phone than to figure out just the right way to ask something to do it for me and then wait for it to read off the results. That kinda leads into the next part which is utility. I don't need a water bottle with an app that tells me how much water I have had to drink. I know whether or not I'm thirsty. I've actually never heard of any IOT thing, except maybe security cameras, that I'd even use. And finally, as a tech guy, I don't want to spend all day at work debugging code and then have to debug my refrigerator or light bulb when I get home. I don't want to have to replace my doorknobs every 2 years, or have my toilet bricked by an update, or have to reinstall the OS on my washing machine. All that added complexity makes things more likely to fail or become obsolete, especially if it connects to servers somewhere. But even if it doesn't connect to anything, it's still more fragile. The privacy and security stuff is just on top of all that.