Came here to say exactly this...it's still a click-baity title. This really has nothing to do with demanding ransom. You could hack a website leaving a message

Came here to say exactly this...it's still a click-baity title. This really has nothing to do with demanding ransom. You could hack a website leaving a message and claim they could "Demand a ransom". Quite simply this is just the ease of hacking IoT devices which unfortunately is not new and has happened with every industry as it becomes "connected" (cars, homes, etc). I would have clicked if it said merely "IoT /s/Home Devices /Coffee Makers/ easily hacked" but the "ransom" aspect is purely to heighten the fear, arguably even in the article itself. This reminds me of the range-rover when they reported on it as if they had taken over a jeep "in-the-wild" where in reality it was a very controlled scenario and arguably much more sophisticated. Even then it wasn't as sensational as this (just my opinion).