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I gave a talk in China 5 years warning about this. http://tech.qq.com/a/20140527/035512.htm http://tech.qq.com/a/20140527/035512.htm I asked vendors to make cha

I gave a talk in China 5 years warning about this. http://tech.qq.com/a/20140527/035512.htm http://tech.qq.com/a/20140527/035512.htm I asked vendors to make changes to their products, such as planned obsolescence so if the manufacturer goes out of business and a device doesn't hear from the mother ship for awhile, all internet connections are killed for good. Also, to set smart defaults so that even when not configured, it won't allow this behavior. There should be a list of more in the article but you'll have to translate to see them.

itake 7y ago
(Un?)Fortunately, a few countries made planned obsolescence illegal :-/ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42615378 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42615378
discordance 7y ago
As long as this sort of planned obsolescence only kills the connectivity feature, and keeps the rest of the device functioning/useable that sounds good
- ggg2 7y ago
  except they will be (very) easy pickings for malware that do their own thing. e.g. Mirai botnet. it's very backward to suggest planned obsolescence as a security feature instead of open software/standards
  - justinclift 7y ago
    The open software / standards would need to cover every aspect of a given product, such that external people / enthusiasts / (etc) would be able to generate fixed firmware and upload it after the manufacturer ends support. That might work for _some_ devices with extremely large user bases. Devices with specialist properties or a low number of users sound like they'd be very tricky to have that approach work reliably. That being said, if there's wide adoption of "known good" base level firmware (eg powering on, init device capabilities) then maybe the specialist stuff could be add on's or something. eg modularising things might be a way to get closer to the goal
ei8htyfi5e 7y ago
Funny story on the talk title. I called it Evil Toasters are Coming: The coming IoT Security Apocalypse. But nobody in China owns a toaster, so the metaphor was lost on them. #LocalizeForYourAudienceFolks
jonathanstrange 7y ago
I think you forgot the most important feature: Physical on/off switches for cameras and microphones. These should be mandated by law in any device, even smartphones.
- ei8htyfi5e 7y ago
  This was in the talk. ...and I built these into my cameras that I made at my first startup, Waylens.com. They're super important in convincing people to put a connected camera in their vehicle where sensitive things are mentioned. I wonder why more manufacturers dont do this.

itake 7y ago

(Un?)Fortunately, a few countries made planned obsolescence illegal :-/ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42615378 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42615378

discordance 7y ago

As long as this sort of planned obsolescence only kills the connectivity feature, and keeps the rest of the device functioning/useable that sounds good

ggg2 7y ago
except they will be (very) easy pickings for malware that do their own thing. e.g. Mirai botnet. it's very backward to suggest planned obsolescence as a security feature instead of open software/standards
- justinclift 7y ago
  The open software / standards would need to cover every aspect of a given product, such that external people / enthusiasts / (etc) would be able to generate fixed firmware and upload it after the manufacturer ends support. That might work for _some_ devices with extremely large user bases. Devices with specialist properties or a low number of users sound like they'd be very tricky to have that approach work reliably. That being said, if there's wide adoption of "known good" base level firmware (eg powering on, init device capabilities) then maybe the specialist stuff could be add on's or something. eg modularising things might be a way to get closer to the goal

ei8htyfi5e 7y ago

Funny story on the talk title. I called it Evil Toasters are Coming: The coming IoT Security Apocalypse. But nobody in China owns a toaster, so the metaphor was lost on them. #LocalizeForYourAudienceFolks

jonathanstrange 7y ago

I think you forgot the most important feature: Physical on/off switches for cameras and microphones. These should be mandated by law in any device, even smartphones.

ei8htyfi5e 7y ago
This was in the talk. ...and I built these into my cameras that I made at my first startup, Waylens.com. They're super important in convincing people to put a connected camera in their vehicle where sensitive things are mentioned. I wonder why more manufacturers dont do this.