Smart devices are increasingly becoming part and parcel of daily life. As we allow various smart devices to infiltrate our lives, what are the security threats they pose?
In just this past August, hackers around the world met up and celebrated with each other in conventions dedicated to their dark arts. From the Black Hat Security Conference to DefCon to Hackpwn, top hackers from all over the world gathered to show off their unique vulnerability findings and amazing hacking skills which alerted us to potential dangers resulting from more and more vulnerabilities found in smart devices.
In the film Overheard, the hero exploits hacking tools to infiltrate the monitoring system of the police station and make an intruder invisible to policemen who are watching the video monitors. Do you think this could only happen in Hollywood? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Due to vulnerabilities residing in surveillance cameras, hackers can exploit this flaw to tamper with surveillance videos and remove whatever they do not want to see on the screen.
At Black Hat, two hackers showed how they could hack a car and made it lose control. On Hackpwn, another hacker made us realize how easily they are able to steal one’s car. With a self-created wireless device, the hacker can steal the password of the wireless remote control of a car or garage door. This flaw is found in many different car brands, including Nissan, Cadillac, Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen and garage door brands like Genie, Liftmaster and more.
Smart home systems are also vulnerable. Almost all smart appliances can be cracked by hackers. In other words, hackers can take full control of your home if they want. They can open doors or windows of your house, or just play whatever they want on your smart TV.
Most terrifying of all is that hackers can control your smart washing machine by exploiting the privilege control flaw. If a hacker hates you, he can make your washing machine run at the speed of 1200 turns per second and run at high temperatures of 90 degrees centigrade. Your washer would soon explode if it’s forced to run like this for long.
Similarly, if your smart oven falls into a hacker’s hands, it’s temperature can be arbitrarily set and a fire hazard can easily occur. Home alarm systems can be cracked by hackers with radio interference, allowing them to turn it on or off as they desire.
Wearable technology provides us with a world of data – but also makes us vulnerable to unseen security breaches. Wearable devices like smart watches, smart bands and smart rings are aimed at tracking fitness data and help people better understand their physical condition.
However, hackers may steal sensitive data including GPS location, private medical information and even living habits from these new devices. Once this information has been compromised it could seriously endanger a user’s privacy or financial security.
While we’re enjoying great convenience made available by smart technology, we’ve left ourselves wide open to security breaches. Don’t forget that early technology is often easily hackable, so pay attention to what you’re using and what is at stake.
Smile while you can, AKA SYC, started it's very foundation from a facebook group, three years
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