Here is an example of what you can post on the blog prior to presenting your tech briefing. We recently saw how vulnerable the Internet of Things is because they are developed with little security. Here is a short 11 minute interview with Avi Rubin on "What Happens when Hackers Hijack Our Smart Devices" (there is a video link there for a different Ted Talk - 16mins, but kinda scary examples). Given this vulnerabilty, it speaks to devices that do not have a lot of regulation (or security) in place. For example, police in Arkansas are trying to use Amazon's Echo data in a murder investigation. Based on court documents in November 2015, a man in Arkansas had some friends over at his house to watch a football game and in the morning, one of the friends was found dead in a hot tub in the backyard. Police later charged the man who lived in the house, James Bates, with murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
As the police were investigating the crime, they found a number of digital devices in the suspect's house, including an Amazon Echo device that was in the kitchen. They have since seized the device and have apparently gotten some information from it, but what they want to check is what — if anything — the device may have recorded around the time of the murder.
What kind of data are companies collecting about what goes on inside the home? What prevents these companies from giving up these data to law enforcement (including hackers or spies) any time they ask for (or take) it? Is anything being done to secure IoT?
Here is an example of a "shockingly easy" way to hijack a Samsung SmartCam camera! Samsung is going to have to figure out how to secure their devices, right? Any other examples?
ReplyDeleteI found the following article to be very interesting. It talks about cloud-based smart toys that can be hacked to record videos of children or track their location without the parent's knowledge.
Deletehttp://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/07/19/fbi_is_warning_parents_about_hacking_internet_connected_toys.html
Hey everybody,
DeleteI found this sweet article that lists 7 common household objects that can be hacked. Make sure you secure all of your IOT devices!
http://mentalfloss.com/article/503104/7-everyday-objects-hackers-can-target
Stay safe,
Troy Caber
I found this article from Wired UK which talks about how Amazon's Alexa is able to be hacked into so that it will always be continuously listening even if when you're not using it.
DeleteFair warning to anyone looking to purchase one or already owns one, you may want to turn your Alexa off when you are not using it.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/amazon-echo-alexa-hack
This article describes how hackers have gained direct access to the US power grid. Hackers are gaining enough control to induce blackouts in any American homes or businesses due to access to circuit breakers. Symantec is the company that has discovered this group that they are calling Dragonfly 2.0.
DeleteCyber security is rapidly developing into something that we could not have imagined.
https://www.wired.com/story/hackers-gain-switch-flipping-access-to-us-power-systems/
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI found an interesting article from Wired which talks about how Aaron Cashatt, a man involved with credit card fraud and robbery, got away with robbing 78 hotels before getting caught.
DeleteCashatt stole close to half a million dollars worth of stuff by rewiring the keycard system in hotels so he could gain access to hotel rooms without having a keycard.
The police were mystified by Cashatt because his scheme left no prints and there was no forced entry allowing Cashatt to act "like a ghost" to authorities.
From this article I learned that it is better to be safe than sorry when staying in hotels, and you can do this by locking your valuables in a safe (if the hotel room provides one).
https://www.wired.com/2017/08/the-hotel-hacker/
I found this really interesting infographic which briefly explains IOT device vulnerabilities and how hackers take advantage of them.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I learned from this graphic was devices that use radio-wave signals can be hacked by jamming or spoofing the channels. It shows that companies need to pay more attention to frequency hopping methods to secure their devices.
https://www.scribd.com/document/328841509/Hackable-devices#from_embed