News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Bought and returned set of WiFi home security cameras; ca... by Aelinsaar on Sunday June 19, 2016 @12:25PM (#11933483)
Until people start demanding security, and become willing to pay for it, the IoT is going to be positively defined by this kind of nonsense. That, or some kind of legislative action I guess, but that seems like pure fantasy.
Re:Bought and returned set of WiFi home security cameras; ca... by matt_wulfeck on Sunday June 19, 2016 @12:39PM (#11933538)
That's like saying "until people start demanding safety on cars and become willing to pay for it there will always be fatalities". Sure part of the blame is on the consumer, but maybe the company shouldn't be selling cameras that are inherently insecure.

These types of things typically play out with lawsuits which increase liability for the producers. The problem is that it's (currently) difficult to prove damages when it's only privacy.

Re:Bought and returned set of WiFi home security cameras; ca... by dexterdog on Sunday June 19, 2016 @01:32PM (#11933764)
For most consumers security is a barrier to usability and we all know which one is more important to the product team.
Re:Bought and returned set of WiFi home security cameras; ca... by Aelinsaar on Sunday June 19, 2016 @01:06PM (#11933660)
That's exactly what happened with safety in automobiles; remember Ralph Nader?
Re:Bought and returned set of WiFi home security cameras; ca... by tacos on Sunday June 19, 2016 @12:55PM (#11933607)
> That's like saying "until people start demanding safety on cars and become willing to pay for it there will always be fatalities"

Uh, that's how it sorta works -- for better and for worse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed

"On March 22, 1966, GM President James Roche was forced to appear before a United States Senate subcommittee, and to apologize to Nader for the company's campaign of harassment and intimidation. Nader later successfully sued GM for excessive invasion of privacy. It was the money from this case that allowed him to lobby for consumer rights, leading to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act, among other things."

Re:Bought and returned set of WiFi home security cameras; ca... by crdoconnor on Sunday June 19, 2016 @02:08PM (#11933903)
We need a standardized protocol/set of protocols first - something that it's easy for manufacturers to adhere to which can handle:

* Pushing common actions in a standardized way (e.g. turn on light, flip channel on TV, raise thermostat to 28 degrees).

* Sending / receiving streams of data via UDP.

* Service registration / discovery & authentication.

* Encryption.

* Upgrading firmware.

And which has a diverse set of servers which can talk these protocols.

Re:Bought and returned set of WiFi home security cameras; ca... by callalex on Sunday June 19, 2016 @03:24PM (#11934284)
This is already starting to happen, for example with HomeKit, but unfortunately instead of all the large manufacturers recognizing that working together would benefit everyone, they each try to create their own proprietary ecosystems with a race to the bottom.
Re:Bought and returned set of WiFi home security cameras; ca... by nateguchi on Sunday June 19, 2016 @12:31PM (#11933504)
Maybe a protocol / standard that has all the security / best practices baked into it?
Re:Bought and returned set of WiFi home security cameras; ca... by arca_vorago on Sunday June 19, 2016 @01:21PM (#11933728)
Not a single one, but people need to be better educated on their options. How about, here are the options where you can actually have control of your devices as under property rights.

I do however also think the gplv3 sphere needs to offer better netguis for the non cli-heroes.

Re:Bought and returned set of WiFi home security cameras; ca... by Aelinsaar on Sunday June 19, 2016 @01:24PM (#11933737)
I'm not sure how easy it would be to communicate, and insulate from marketeering. "Steel roll cage" or "Airbags" and "Seatbelts" are relatively simple concepts. I don't know that even something as common as "SSH" would mean much to the average person, and by the time they learned, any given term or technique would probably have been supplanted by another, newer, better one.