Slashdot Mirror
Hackers Make the First-Ever Ransomware For Smart Thermostats (vice.com)
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, writing for Motherboard: One day, your thermostat will get hacked by some cybercriminal hundreds of miles away who will lock it with malware and demand a ransom to get it back to normal, leaving you literally in the cold until you pay up a few hundred dollars. This has been a scenario that security experts have touted as one of the theoretical dangers of the rise of the Internet of Things, internet-connected devices that are often insecure. On Saturday, what sounds like a Mr. Robot plot line came one step closer to being reality, when two white hat hackers showed off the first-ever ransomware that works against a "smart" device, in this case, a thermostat. Luckily, Andrew Tierney and Ken Munro, the two security researchers who created the ransomware, actually have no ill intention. They just wanted to make a point: some Internet of Things devices fail to take simple security precautions, leaving users in danger. "We don't have any control over our devices, and don't really know what they're doing and how they're doing it," Tierney told Motherboard. "And if they start doing something you don't understand, you don't really have a way of dealing with it." Tierney and Munro, who both work UK-based security firm Pen Test Partners, demonstrated their thermostat ransomware proof-of-concept at the hacking conference Def Con on Saturday, fulfilling the pessimistic predictions of some people in security world.
COMPLETELY impossible to unscrew the smart thermostat from the wall, unwire it, and (temporarily) install a traditional non-networked thermostat so you could operate your heat (or AC) while you contact the vendor or manufacturer of the smart thermostat for help.
Hmm... Pay you hundreds of dollars, or replace the damn thing with a $20 model you can't hack remotely. Seems an easy choice for me.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
This is why I don't understand the rush to have all these IOT devices in the house. I have a couple, but they are isolated, and if they were hacked I could still function without them. There seems to be a rush to have everything, from the washing machine, to the microwave, to the toaster hooked to the internet, and there seems to be even a push to build these devices so that they do not function without an internet connection. I used to be baffled as to why consumers would even want such things. But, of course, it is not the consumers who want all this IOT, but the vendors who sell the devices and the services, trying to turn us into the product.
Proverbs 21:19
Do you have any idea what a licensed installer charges for an emergency visit on a Sunday morning? That $25 thermostat is $50 because you don't get to buy the one that's on sale at Home Depot, and the cost to knock on your door is going to be close to $150, and then the rate ticks forward at $100/hr. And at the end of your $300 emergency service call, you'll be left with a dumb thermostat and a $200 paperweight.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
One day, your thermostat will get hacked by some cybercriminal
No, it won't: I'm not falling for the 'Internet of Things' troll/meme. You won't be hacking my thermostat, lightbulbs, dishwasher, microwave oven, clothes washer, clothes dryer, television, or any other household appliance because there's not a single damned good reason why these NEED to be connected to the Internet.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!