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If It Uses Electricity, It Will Connect To the Internet: F-Secure's CRO (theregister.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the words-of-wisdom dept.

New submitter evolutionary writes: According to F-Secure's Chief Research Officer "IoT is unavoidable. If it uses electricity, it will become a computer. If it uses electricity, it will be online. In future, you will only buy IoT appliances, whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not." F-Secure's new product to help mitigate data leakage, "Sense", is a IoT Firewall, combining a traditional firewall with a cloud service and uses concepts including behaviour-based blocking and device reputation to figure out whether you have insecure devices.

7 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. I don't think so. by captaindomon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I get his point - more things will be connected to the internet. But more things will also not be. The internet is a utility now, it's not just new and shiny. Sure, there will be coffee machines that are connected to the internet you can buy, but there will be a ton of people that don't want them and want a normal coffee machine. If you don't believe me, look at pets.com and the bubble burst. Seemed at the time that everything would be purchased through a web site. Sure, Amazon has some pet food sales. But people aren't ever going to stop buying dog food locally.

    --
    Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
    1. Re:I don't think so. by UnknowingFool · · Score: 3

      Let's take his own example: An Internet connected toaster. Why the **** would my toaster need to be connected? His point is that the toaster company would add Internet to my toaster regardless if I want it so they can collect analytics. I use my toaster twice a year. Even if I leave it connected, the data they collect will be of little use. If they really want to connect everything, I'll just leave things unplugged. Or not connect them to my home network. Or get another model that doesn't have a connection.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    2. Re:I don't think so. by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Informative

      We use our toaster often, but unplug it when we're not using it. If our toaster was Internet-connected, would we need to wait for it to boot up before we could make some toast? Because if that's the case, I'll do what you do and buy a non-Internet-connected toaster or not connect it to my home network. (If the toaster requires Internet connectivity to make toast, it will be returned ASAP and I'd post a warning online to keep others from buying that model.)

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    3. Re:I don't think so. by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nope, but that's not the way it will happen. The Internet Toaster won't care if my toast is perfect. It WILL care what brand of bread I use and will want to tell me about other wonderful choices in the world of sliced bread. And THAT will take 15 seconds, be associated with an annoying noise, voice and / or blinky light.

      Then the company that made the toaster will shut off the server for reasons unclear in the engineering world. I won't be able to put another slice of bread in it until I either buy a subscription to toast.biz or another fucking toaster.

      It's not the microprocessor and sensor suite that is the issue (although you can overthink a problem pretty easily these days). It's the connection to the cloud for no apparent gain other than to line somebody else's pockets.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    4. Re:I don't think so. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How about a free toaster if you plug it in for at least 16 hours a day? And by the way it has a microphone and a screen showing adverts on it... And it etches adverts into the toast as well... But it's free!

      --
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  2. Security company scaremongering IoT by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Film at 11.

    He's probably right about the push towards having to be online, but I fail to see how an IoT firewall should mitigate it. Especially with the increasing use of IPv6, which means more and more IoT devices will try to get un-NATed access to the internet (and will probably also get their wish granted).

    Good luck trying to firewall that.

    Sorry, but no. If we want secure IoT devices, we have to demand them. And that means not buying the shoddy, insecure junk that's currently peddled. And I'm not even talking about any gimmicky gadgets from some Aliexpress shops, I'm talking about our "smart" TVs and other "smart" appliances made for dumb people.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Re:It doesnt have to be online by EvilSS · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just rip out the antenna so it can't try to get on your wifi or cellular networks. Bam, good old fashioned dumb appliance that will simply do what it was originally designed for instead of trying to integrate a billion little web marketing doodads on to a screen that shouldn't be there in the first place.

    "We're sorry, there seems to be a problem connecting to the internet. You will need to complete the WiFi setup before you can make your toast"

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