If you are wondering whether you really live in the future: we need to be concerned about the security of Internet-connected power outlets.
Such devices are the subject of a VB2016
paper
by four researchers from
Bitdefender
in Romania: George Cabău, Radu Basaraba, Dragoș Gavriluț and Ciprian Oprișa. While the devices may not appear to offer a lot of possibilities for those with malicious intentions, the fact that they can turn any device whose power is controlled by them into a “smart device” means that their security should concern us.
Unfortunately, security didn’t appear to have been a concern for the developers of these devices as, when looking at four “smart” outlets, the researchers found issues with all of them, including two that could be hacked remotely. Worse, when the manufacturers were contacted, they didn’t show much interest in fixing the issues, or answering the researchers’ calls.
The researchers will discuss these issues, some of which are embarrassingly simple, on
Friday 7 October
at VB2016.
VB2016 starts in four weeks’ time and
registration
is still open. For more on IoT security, there is the presentation
Mobile Applications: a Backdoor into Internet of Things?
by
Fortinet
researcher Axelle Apvrille, which we previewed
last week
.
Leave a Reply