Internet of Things (IoT)

9 billion now. 11 billion more coming real soon.

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Yesterday (and the day before that), we spoke about IoT (Internet of Things) and how it is letting our children be the subject of spying.  But, even with all those vulnerable toys, we must recognize that there are some 9 billion IoT devices in use right now.  And, by 2020, that number will exceed 20 billion.  So, we are not just talking about potentially errant toys!

Brita Filter

What devices? Consider that Uber, Solar City, ADT, Comcast- even Brita Filters (part of Clorox) all employ IoT (or wi-fi enabled smart devices).    Brita automatically re-orders water filters so you can always have “clean water”.  Uber gets you their cars, Solar City lets homeowners know how much electricity they are generating (and coordinate that power with the local power suppliers), and Comcast is now setting up smart homes for its customers.  (Notice that NEST, a unit of Google, sells isolated devices- not as components of a larger, more hacker-unsafe systems.  For now.)

This is why these firms claim they are selling us “hardware as a service”, trying to make us feel comfortable.  After all, we’ve been bombarded with the phrase “software as a service” for a long time now.

And, given our aging population, you can bet one of the biggest (and scariest) IoT services will be aimed at ‘aging in place’.  (I’ve already written how it is so easy to take over someone’s pacemaker, defibrillator, and insulin pumps.)  Oh, and don’t think the vendors will be selling those systems to folks like me. (You do know that I am an old fart, right?)  Nope- they’ll sell them to our kids, to provide them (not us older folks) peace of mind.    (I wrote about a venture that Ellie and I developed some decades ago to provide peace of mind to kids whose parents lived in Florida- and that was before IoT would make that concept inherently doable and done relatively cheaply.)

Think about it though.  Your intelligent lighting system?  Sure it can lower your electric bills, but it also lets folks know when you come home, when you leave.  Oh!  That means we are ripe for theft, ripe for exploitation.  Yup.

TrendNet cameras

Consider this… A certain camera (a security camera, I might add) is so insecure that by typing a short series of characters (12) and the PUBLISHED (and relatively easily found) internet addresses the cameras use into a browser will let anyone gain control of the devices.

All that “training” you provide Siri, Alexa, so they can be “more helpful”.  Have you considered how much data that provides the vendors (or hackers) about your life?   Or, your car?  That records where you went, the speeds you drove, among other data points.  (Not to mention rendering your car capable of being hijacked by a hacker.)

Those “smart” devices often mean you and I are not in control of our worlds.  Corporations that provide these devices are in control.  They can erase things from our computers, they can prevent us from doing what we want- and, soon enough, they can tell our cars where they want us to go- despite our desires.

Free WiFi in Manhattan

This is exactly why there are free Wi-Fi kiosks all over Manhattan.  Because you are letting those vendors collect your data and sell it to- whomever.   You’ve agreed to let “whoever” spy on you- so you really have no recourse.

Growth of IoT

Those fitness trackers so many of us use?  Did you consider that the data can be provided to potential insurers or employers to discern who should pay more for their insurance or may prove to be an unreliable (due to sickness or lack of fitness) worker?

Now, let’s get even more creative.  (Or, is that more deviant?)  We saw what a terrorist could do with one truck in Nice or one truck in Manhattan.   Just imagine what would happen if the terrorist platooned a fleet of trucks with the same aim.

But, back to those fit-bits (fitness trackers).  Do you realize that terrorists (or our enemies) can determine where the US positions its troops?  This is NOT hypothetical.  Strava (a GPS tracking company) publishes what it calls the Global Heat Map.   The satellite data can be viewed by anyone to see where users have been over the past months.  And, if one sees a bunch of users in the middle of the desert or in a place where no one is supposed to be… Yeah, I don’t have to fill in the blanks, do I?  (Do you now wonder what happens if someone buys an over-the-counter drone and adds an IED to it?)

Two years ago, botnet attacks on IoT became evident. The Mirai (mirai means future in Japanese) attack exploited the weaknesses in cameras and home routers.  And, that attack meant many of us couldn’t access myriads of sites on the Internet. (Yes- the computer code for this hack was published as open-source, too!)   These attacks recognize that our IoT devices lack sufficient brain power to render them secure- and will accept requests from anywhere on the web, once their password (“Admin”, “Password”, “1234”) are provided the unit.

Norton Core

Which brings up some new routers we should be considering for our offices and homes.  F-Secure and Norton sell routers that require an annual subscription.  For a year (renewable, for more money, of course), the router is connected to a cloud service that monitors for potential hackers. And, these devices (the routers) have a high enough IQ (computing power) to effect malware checks and discern hacker intrusions.

The Core (Norton’s device) actually lets us put all our IoT devices on a separate segment from the rest of our computing equipment.  So, if a hacker does manage to control your electric outlets, it won’t have access to your computer that maintains your bank passwords.  (We already do this on our networks, by spending the time to program our two routers (at each location), each with a  different WiFi and cable system set of addresses.)  Norton also will stop folks from visiting sites that always have malware and spam associated with them (like those ubiquitous pornography sites).

But, even these devices require IoT devices to have designs that aren’t already infected with the Mirai exploit.  Or, our security will be dealing with a slew of Trojan Horses.

So, how safe are you feeling right now?

Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A.

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