23 ms·

I feel like the only thing that can fix this type of mentality is a line of products targeted towards annoying nerdy 13 year old boys-- the type of boy that a l

I feel like the only thing that can fix this type of mentality is a line of products targeted towards annoying nerdy 13 year old boys-- the type of boy that a lot of us were. We need to make it easy for them to abuse security lapses in IoT products. When I was in middle school, I brought a universal remote to class and turned on the television set. Yeah, I know, I was a badass. But these kids will do much more. The problem is that when a software engineer goes to the front desk of a hotel and complains about the security of the brand new Android-Powered Hi-Tech system that they just put in, the person working the desk thinks, "Haha wow! That nerd was a real Sheldon Cooper, like on the television!" and they don't care at all. If you live in a bubble where programming and computer work is black magic, well then of course it is completely inevitable that someone so nerdy and so smart would be able to hack everything on the planet. So they don't really think there's anything to be done. When it's a group of annoying little 15 year olds that sneak out in the middle of the night to wake up all of your guests, it's a lot bigger of a deal.

bencollier49 11y ago
Except that nowadays they'll be locked up for 5 years.
tekromancr 11y ago
I like that idea! A 21st century version of: https://41.media.tumblr.com/b56a0e413ba7869ffc4a9ec99777f132/tumblr_mnos1ulYDC1srjsxio1_500.jpg https://41.media.tumblr.com/b56a0e413ba7869ffc4a9ec99777f132...
wpietri 11y ago
Not sure why this is getting downvoted. This is a big part of what happened with internet security over the years. Back at the dawn of time, less than a billion seconds from epoch, it was considered rude to exploit obvious security holes. People would actually track down casual hackers and get them in trouble. But once script kiddies came on the scene, it became a lost cause. Once it could be any 14-year-old idiot on the planet scanning your ports and exploiting your old, unpatched software, it became clear that tacit agreements and social pressure weren't enough. The burden of security began to shift to people who created the software.

bencollier49 11y ago

Except that nowadays they'll be locked up for 5 years.

tekromancr 11y ago

I like that idea! A 21st century version of: https://41.media.tumblr.com/b56a0e413ba7869ffc4a9ec99777f132/tumblr_mnos1ulYDC1srjsxio1_500.jpg https://41.media.tumblr.com/b56a0e413ba7869ffc4a9ec99777f132...

wpietri 11y ago

Not sure why this is getting downvoted. This is a big part of what happened with internet security over the years. Back at the dawn of time, less than a billion seconds from epoch, it was considered rude to exploit obvious security holes. People would actually track down casual hackers and get them in trouble. But once script kiddies came on the scene, it became a lost cause. Once it could be any 14-year-old idiot on the planet scanning your ports and exploiting your old, unpatched software, it became clear that tacit agreements and social pressure weren't enough. The burden of security began to shift to people who created the software.