4 ms·
Philips partners with Cisco to install distributed hardware and lighting into corporate institutions and high end hotels. Cisco[0] is a known entry point for em
by vonklaus 11y ago
Philips partners with Cisco to install distributed hardware and lighting into corporate institutions and high end hotels. Cisco[0] is a known entry point for embedded surveillance techniques. The lighting system, on top of being entirely contolled via remote, is networked into the buildings infrastructure. Also, as a focal point[1], it connects with cellphones and other networked sensors to provide the amount of lighting, temperature, occupancy and other data which it uses to automate functionality.
The temperature sensors map the entire building, as likely would motion sensors. This tech provides realtime data about who and where people are within a building, control of the actual lighting, and mappings of every structure they are installed in, some of which are high end hotels, corporate offices, research labs and medical facilities.
[1]http://www.lighting.philips.co.uk/systems/connected-lighting.html http://www.lighting.philips.co.uk/systems/connected-lighting...
[0]http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/photos-of-an-nsa-upgrade-factory-show-cisco-router-getting-implant/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/photos-of-an-nsa-...
- cowsandmilk 11y agoLumileds, the division of Philips for sale, does not make connected lighting. That is made by Philips lighting. That is, Lumileds makes LEDs. Philips lighting makes light bulbs, that have LEDs inside. Any other sensors and connected portion of the product are also built into the bulb, but not by Lumileds.
- djcapelis 11y agoFor now maybe, but as we've seen with most LED lighting, the trend is to incorporate ASICs into the LED packages. So Lumiled's products would presumably be capable of all kinds of interesting things. If not immediately, than in a year or two.
- duncan_bayne 11y agoThey say they don't make connected lighting. Probably true for 99% of their output. But the 'special' LED banks with hostile / surveillance electronics in them, for 'special' customers? Bet they don't show up in the catalogue.
- imglorp 11y agoGiven it's CIFUS, I'm guessing it's an inversion thing--ie they don't want yet another company taking its money abroad for tax sheltering--but they might not have a legal leg to stand on so they'll throw some security FUD to hold up the sale. The other possibility is CIFUS was asked to block the sale by a three-letter agency, which would be a joke, because (a) TLA's should quit forcing backdoors into crypto and let vendors secure their stuff, (b) even without backdoors, IOT and embedded security is already laughably weak, and (c) given the multinational nature of most development teams, it wouldn't be surprising for someone's home government to ask for a peek at the code, and (d) most corporate security is laughably weak, so foreign governments can and do just take what they want any time[1]. If the US is truly worried about Asia subverting embedded devices, then maybe they should be addressing some of these issues and not look at ownership. 1. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/06/chinese_hacking_1.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/06/chinese_hacki...
- andrewjl 11y agoCFIUS reviews M&A deals only on national security grounds. That's why the details of the proceeding are usually classified. If this were an anti-trust or inversion issue, then it would fall onto the DOJ to bring up an action and we would be able to get more details on the resultant proceedings. There's no point in DOJ asking CFIUS to do what they themselves can easily accomplish.
- wheaties 11y agoThe real scary question to ask is if we've already back door ed this and don't want another country like China to know.
- galtwho 11y agothere is no doubt it is. Surely this should be a given even before knowing about the snowden saga. After snowden saga we all should know this as a fact.