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Why connectivity for a dishwasher? I can think of one or maybe two scenarios: 1 - send the owner an urgent email in the event of catastrophic failure, i.e. dr

Why connectivity for a dishwasher? I can think of one or maybe two scenarios: 1 - send the owner an urgent email in the event of catastrophic failure, i.e. drain blockage which might lead to overflow all over the kitchen floor. 2 - let owner know status of current cycle, in real time. Some people might like to know that, though I'm not sure why. Usually you run the dishes at night or during some open ended period of time so you don't have to care when it finishes. You could theoretically control the appliance with a computer or mobile device. Why would you want to? Beats me, but it's one of those gimmicks that might please some gadget-happy segment of the consumer market. What evil things could a hacker do to your dishwasher? Make it start in the middle of the night? Ruin the delicate plastic stuff? I'd personally be very happy just to own a dishwasher that actually cleans stuff. I've had several dishwashers and have yet to see one that cleans as well as I can with my Scotch blue pad and Ajax.

flukus 10y ago
> What evil things could a hacker do to your dishwasher? Make it start in the middle of the night? Ruin the delicate plastic stuff? Waste a lot of water/electricity. Run cold water only so it doesn't disinfect. Use it as a platform to attack other household devices. Most hackers would only have a motivation for the latter.
- taneliv 10y ago
  Or distribute illegal material.
lewiscollard 10y ago
> What evil things could a hacker do to your dishwasher? Turning it into a botnet node, cf. Mirai. If the only harm that came from Internet-all-the-things was that to the owners of the devices I'd welcome it; the person who buys this junk is one who deserves everything they get. It's the damage being done to the rest of us that is worth caring about.
mattkrause 10y ago
Despite the photo in the article, it's not a home dishwasher; it's a "disinfector" meant for hospital or medical labs. Most users probably want to--or are required to--keep records about the cycle length, maximum temperature, and stuff like that. We had an older machine that printed this information on cash register paper, but clearly that's not ideal if you want the data to be stored and searchable. Similarly, the remote monitoring/alarms could useful for keeping procedures on schedule.

flukus 10y ago

> What evil things could a hacker do to your dishwasher? Make it start in the middle of the night? Ruin the delicate plastic stuff? Waste a lot of water/electricity. Run cold water only so it doesn't disinfect. Use it as a platform to attack other household devices. Most hackers would only have a motivation for the latter.

taneliv 10y ago
Or distribute illegal material.

lewiscollard 10y ago

> What evil things could a hacker do to your dishwasher? Turning it into a botnet node, cf. Mirai. If the only harm that came from Internet-all-the-things was that to the owners of the devices I'd welcome it; the person who buys this junk is one who deserves everything they get. It's the damage being done to the rest of us that is worth caring about.

mattkrause 10y ago

Despite the photo in the article, it's not a home dishwasher; it's a "disinfector" meant for hospital or medical labs. Most users probably want to--or are required to--keep records about the cycle length, maximum temperature, and stuff like that. We had an older machine that printed this information on cash register paper, but clearly that's not ideal if you want the data to be stored and searchable. Similarly, the remote monitoring/alarms could useful for keeping procedures on schedule.