Am I the only one thinking it's a good job we don't have ipv6 yet?
It's 2016 and now your internet-connected bathroom scales can be hacked
Owners of Fitbit's Aria internet-connected smart scales are being advised to install a firmware patch following the discovery of critical security flaws. Tavis Ormandy of Google's Project Zero was credited with finding the vulnerabilities in the Wi-Fi cyber-scales. While Fitbit isn't providing specific details on the nature of …
COMMENTS
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Friday 29th April 2016 20:21 GMT Hans 1
I was in a shop for some scales, the cheapest I could find (no, I do not really need precision) were Bluetooth-enabled scales .... they work without, but you can hook-up your mobe to send your data to a cloud ...
We do not really care about BMI or whatever, we just wanted scales to weigh the kids ... needless to say, Bluetooth has been turned off on the device ... there is no option, I disconnected the antenna.
Why people share information like this with commercial companies is beyond me ... the porkies will get contacted by weight watchers or slimfast in no time, for the "one month free special deal" ...
My BMI is below 20 and I do not really care, it has been like that for over two decades and I am as fit as a fiddle.
Never, EVER, put your WIFI password into these devices. Hello, anybody in ?
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Friday 29th April 2016 20:40 GMT Andy Non
I made the mistake of buying some overly-fangled Tefal scales a while back, they were all that were left in the shop. They were annoying as hell. All I wanted to know was my weight, but you had to step on them then off and back on again to turn them on; then if I had just got on them after my wife they dutifully informed me the difference in our weights and displayed a graph of the changes in "my" weight. To make matters worse the batteries only lasted a month or so. Ended up throwing them away after only a few months and buying some cheap spring based scales. At least they did what scales are supposed to do. The more technology they put in these things, often the worse and more unusable they become.
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Friday 29th April 2016 21:18 GMT a_yank_lurker
@Hans 1 - It looks like a Wally World run or check Amazon. Given the Wally World clientele is generally not interested in IoT and Amazon seems to carry about everything one might find a basic scale with no connectivity.
I HATE IoT, imbecilic marketing featuritis that has almost no real benefit except to fleece one of their hard-earned money
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Tuesday 3rd May 2016 22:12 GMT razorfishsl
Yes... dummy, Imagine a hacker attacks your refrigerator,
Then uses it as a remote system with updated firmware to attack the other devices in your hovel.
Maybe your banking browser or router, then leverages your systems from inside your "fire walled" router, maybe goes on to attack some government systems or banking infrastructure from your IP address... and for a laugh downloads some kiddie porn onto your systems.
What's that dummy, no AV software for your appliances...?
I have some very interesting work going regarding TV boxes, and before that USB sticks
but then again ... so do the Chinese.....
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Friday 29th April 2016 21:15 GMT Rol
The Force, with you, it is. marketing force, that is.
"Hey Dave, how's things? I'm off to the jobcentre and thought I'd pop in on the way for a coffee"
"DID SOMEONE MENTION COFFEE?"
"What's that?"
"Oh, it's my new coffee maker, it was the cheapest I could get, but it seems part of the price is it will shout advertising crap at me while making the coffee"
"DO YOU NEED A BREAK, I HAVE MILLIONS OF GETAWAY DEALS, ALL AT AFFORDABLE PRICES"
"Wow, both amazing and annoying"
"Mmm"
"Tastes ok though, just gonna use your loo.....Hey a new toilet as well"
"BUY RAPIDO BLEACH, KILLS EVERYTHING RAPID LIKE"
"You've got to be joking, another cheapest you could find?"
"Yes, I think I've learnt my lesson"
"Any other remarkably cheap, yet annoying new things?"
"Well, I got this Chrome Book laptop thingy, but it seems fine..............
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Saturday 30th April 2016 17:27 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: What's the worst that could happen?
What's the worst that could happen?
That is the most dangerous phrase in the English language. I'd guess it was probably what the inventors of the atomic bomb said before the first test, when they thought they'd just get a modestly big bang and a crater 100 feet across.
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Sunday 1st May 2016 21:16 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: What's the worst that could happen?
"Well, for the H bomb that was some fear that it could ignite the atmosphere. They did some calculations, then proceeded anyway. That took BALLS!"
I would say it took insane, sociopathic shortsightedness - and the Castle Bravo detonation proved that to be the case. The story of H-bomb development is one of people who shouldn't have been allowed to play with a box of matches in a sprinkler factory.
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Friday 29th April 2016 21:32 GMT redpawn
Toothbrush next
This is a great idea. Insurers will love having more data. Your tooth brush could send brushing time and dietary info to the scale to be forwarded to your insurance company. Remember to check regularly for security updates for all your door knobs, scales, light bulbs paperweights etc. You wouldn't want to mis out on all the great new features.
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Saturday 30th April 2016 08:23 GMT billse10
Re: Toothbrush next
"Insurers will love having more data" - but there's one thing they'll love far, far more.
"Remember to check regularly for security updates for all your door knobs" ... wait, you didn't have the latest security patch installed on your door knobs when they broke in? Oh, but as that's a breach of your insurance policy, we won't be able to pay out. The policy clearly states you are required to install the very latest update within five minutes of release, regardless of what the patch is or does - look, it's here, in the footnote on page 94 - so it's actually your fault we can't pay you.
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Friday 29th April 2016 21:46 GMT Mark 85
The Race to the Stupid Level is on....
Dare I ask.... could there possibly anything more stupid than an internet connected scale.. besides a light bulb, that is? Ok.. add coffee pot, refrigerator, power drill, kitchen mixer, and the toilet (loo). Now can there be anything more useless than these that we can connect?
I guess if I were a miscreant, I'd want these things in everyone else's home and office, though.
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Saturday 30th April 2016 06:59 GMT Steve Davies 3
IoT - Idiots or Twats. You choose
IOT is also a solution waiting for a question
Why?
Why?
why?
would anyone connect a [insert IoT device type/name here] to the internet?
What benefit to humanity is it?
I do know that I will never connect any domestic appliance to the Internet.
Nowt more to be said really
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Saturday 30th April 2016 09:53 GMT Steve Davies 3
Re: IoT - Idiots or Twats. You choose
The Ad-slingers will be more interested in your data than the Government.
Suddenly your TV shows an Ad for nappies. A few seconds before your granddaughter told you that she was expecting (then in a quiet voice,) a present for her other half to be delivered to your home.
She's not pregnant but the dumb IoT think interpreted it all wrong.
Who do you sue when because of some ad slinging mistake a marriage/relationship ends?
Come on now all those in favour of this crap please tell us this?
Crap, pure and simple IMHO.
GTFO of my lawn.
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Saturday 30th April 2016 10:38 GMT VinceH
Re: IoT - Idiots or Twats. You choose
I'm starting to realise that lots of people seem to have cheap rubbish routers that can't cope with many connected devices.
With luck, it'll people in that situation that will be first in line for idIOT / iOUT crap, and will think the devices are faulty when it's really their router that isn't coping - and the result is that word of mouth then kills this rubbish before it gets a chance to take off.
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Saturday 30th April 2016 14:47 GMT Tom 7
I have just realised I now love the IOT despite its pointlessness.
I just remembered a Bob Monkhouse story of when he was in lodgings during fuel rationing and one of his fellow lodgers had a 2CV and kept going on about how fuel efficient it was (in those days it was very efficient) and for a couple of months Monkhouse crept out at night and poured some of his petrol ration into the guys car until his expounding of its fuel efficiency reached epic levels at which point he reversed the procedure.
I think I am going to enjoy this broken branch of technological evolution.
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Saturday 30th April 2016 17:35 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I have just realised I now love the IOT despite its pointlessness.
this broken branch of technological evolution
If only it were, mate! The Internet of tat is going to be shoved down our throats with a rough and shitty stick. Sooner of later most domestic routers will be configured to allow IoT devices unauthenticated access (in the name of "ease of use"), and everything we buy will be "cloud enabled".
For the technically literate there will be solutions to this dystopian future, but for the masses.....
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