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The Coming IT Nightmare of Unpatchable Systems
snydeq (1272828) writes "Insecure by design and trusted by default, embedded systems present security concerns that could prove crippling if not addressed by fabricators, vendors, and customers alike, InfoWorld reports. Routers, smart refrigerators, in-pavement traffic-monitoring systems, or crop-monitoring drones — 'the trend toward systems and devices that, once deployed, stubbornly "keep on ticking" regardless of the wishes of those who deploy them is fast becoming an IT security nightmare made real, affecting everything from mom-and-pop shops to power stations. This unpatchable hell is a problem with many fathers, from recalcitrant vendors to customers wary of — or hostile to — change. But with the number and diversity of connected endpoints expected to skyrocket in the next decade, radical measures are fast becoming necessary to ensure that today's "smart" devices and embedded systems don't haunt us for years down the line.'"
Different nightmare. The Y2K embedded system nightmare was systems that wouldn't know what to do when the clock rolled over. By and large, the doomsayers were completely wrong. The current problem is *Internet enabled* embedded systems, easily hackable, out of warranty, out of support, manufacturer TU, owner/deployer isn't even sure how many they have, or where they're located, etc., etc. Picture making a botnet out of all the traffic light controllers, or the elevator controllers, or smart water meters, or internet toasters.