Why Light Bulbs May Be the Next Hacker Target [Internet of Things]

NY Times ^ | November 3, 2016 | John Markoff

[C19fan]

The so-called Internet of Things, its proponents argue, offers many benefits: energy efficiency, technology so convenient it can anticipate what you want, even reduced congestion on the roads.

Now here’s the bad news: Putting a bunch of wirelessly connected devices in one area could prove irresistible to hackers. And it could allow them to spread malicious code through the air, like a flu virus on an airplane.

[C19fan]

For me the Internet of Things is for lazy people who can't be bothered to use switches. Inviting hacking on a massive scale.

[Snowybear]

I tend to agree. I won’t let this crap in my house.

I ignored X10 when it came out. I’ll ignore this too. Just more crap to break.

[Namo_Amitabha]

Jeffrey Deaver’s new book, “Steel Kiss” is about the IOT and how it can be hacked to murder people.

[Honorary Serb]

Bring back old-fashioned light bulbs—100 watt, of course!!!!

[blackdog]

A switch is a zero or a one. The most sophisticated analog prox switch scaling 0~10VDC, still in the end function turns something on or off with a zero or one.

The real problems come with networking the switches. Instead of old fashioned hard wiring of switches, we now use Ethernet switches and data lines linked to processors to turn switches on or off using aliases. It's like machines now make millions of phone calls to each other 100 times a second. These calls are "scan times" in a program. Certain conditions or requirements cause stuff to turn on or off based on the program. I can have a part go bad in a machine and reassign the tag that sends or receives the phone calls to another alias switch or component function with the click of a mouse and a few cut and pastes. No change in wires needed.

The now bigger problem is when I insert a line of code in the program which does not include a reset or a jump instruction. Now the 1000 times a second scan time comes to a screeching halt. No more machines calling other machines. Everything stops.

I can make an elevator in a building run using an Ethernet linked refrigerator door light bulb. Every time the refrigerator door opens the elevator will stop. The havoc I can create is endless! The solutions I can create when an important machine stops are also endless. It's a matter of integrity of the person doing the work.

Now you understand voter fraud in machines. I can use each vote triggered for candidate A to write a bit to a machine in Hoboken and at the top of each hour transfer that block to candidate B in Boise Idaho. I can do it all using any system which is connected to a shared network and some disclosed IP addresses in my system targeted.

[Rannug]

I have a WHOLE lot of them in the basement.

[CygnusXI]

I have magiclite all over my apt.. Love em!!

[W.]

I fixed a refrigerator in the Eagles club in town, and noticed a box of light bulbs in the corner of their attic. Upon further inspection, it turned out they were 300 watt traffic signal bulbs. I grabbed a couple, talk about a flamethrower for your lead light...

[wku man]

Skynet. Genisys.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho! God Bless Texas!

[LoneStarGI]

Have we become that damned lazy? Yesterday I was in Home Depot getting a standard A19 replacement bulb and saw, I kid you not, an LED light fixture that you can control via WiFi with your smart phone. Seriously, how hard is it to get out of the chair and flip a switch?

[Ladysforest]

I gots some. Lots. 40, 60, 75 and 100 watt. Some 20 watts too. If I live another 30 years I will probably still have bulbs aplenty when I die.

[Ladysforest]

That all just gave me a spasm in my brain. :)

[blackdog]

"That all just gave me a spasm in my brain. :)"

Are you sure it didn't arrive when you opened your refrigerator door?

Another very scary fact...........Heart pacemakers have their own IP addresses. Make sure you keep up with your copays! Someone may network it to your refrigerator door light.

[Albion Wilde]

Ping!

[Ladysforest]

So are all refrigerator door lights able to be hacked? Or just the newer “smart” ones?

I know absolutely nothing about technology. Sad to say really, but it is the truth. Whenever I set out to try and learn a little about new gadgets and such I don’t last very long.

[blackdog]

Not the bulb per se. But the smart systems being used today can let me use that switch to control something else using an ethernet or wireless connection.

[Ladysforest]

You seem to be an evil genius! I can barely use my keyboard to make words appear on the screen. *sigh* Every once in a while I get the notion to expand my knowledge of the latest gadgetry. Then I go watch the squirrels play in the yard. It is that hopeless for me. I don’t have the gene.