You Need WiFi Connected Appliances in Your Life!

September 4th, 2019 at 12:03:04 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
In the youtube thread the topic of connecting a TV to the internet came up,
http://diversitytomorrow.com/thread/2646/42/#post124805

It prompted me to search for reasons to connect common appliances to the internet, and I came across the below link

Quote:
... you can start preheating your ... oven or ... range before you leave work, so it’s at the perfect temperature right when you walk in the door. Or, place your dinner in the oven before you leave the house and use your phone to choose the time the oven turns on.

...what if you are already home, but you’re busy ... and you hear the oven’s timer beep? ... Simply take out your phone and turn the oven off...

Some ... refrigerators have Keurig K–cup brewing systems built right into the door. As if that wasn’t convenient enough, you can time it so hot water is ready to brew your coffee as soon as you step into the kitchen in the morning.

You leave the refrigerator door open. You forget to turn the oven off. Or maybe the dishwasher springs a leak while you’re not at home. ... you’ll receive alerts on your phone if anything is wrong and then you can control the device from your phone to prevent disaster.

You’ll also get alerts when it’s time to perform regular maintenance, like cleaning the oven or changing the water filter ...

Smart appliances can also help you save energy and reduce utility bills. For example, you can program your ... dishwasher to run in the middle of the night ... Or set your refrigerator’s thermostat to adjust itself throughout the day so it stays colder during the day ...

... enable your appliances to respond to your voice commands. You can also have your appliances track and order supplies for you ...

...The best part about smart appliances is that they are future-proof. You’ll get automatic software upgrades as soon as they are available ... No additional purchases necessary.
I'll add: And don't worry, you will be constantly hacked because of this last bit, in fact your house may get burned to the ground by your smart stove while you are gone. You'll get an alert though!


https://renosappliance.com/blog/post/5-reasons-you-need-ge-wifi-connect-appliances-in-your-life/
I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]
September 4th, 2019 at 1:15:27 AM permalink
rxwine
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 188
Posts: 18631
Computers sometimes do weird things that may make you suspect they're hacked or infected. Sometimes they just need updating, or just one program is malfunctioning. But if you do like to open mystery files from the internet, you probably will get hacked.
You believe in an invisible god, and dismiss people who say they are trans? Really?
September 4th, 2019 at 2:42:34 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
I don't know for sure if my tv box got hacked

but hacking is going on, pretty rampant

google "hacking appliances" and a bunch of stuff comes right up
I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]
September 4th, 2019 at 5:29:57 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
most software and hardware has little or no security built into it. Consider all those telephone answering machines that The News Of The Week hacked simply because consumers left their default passwords alone. No one ever programmed a medical pump against a hacker, much less a corrupted address link or a malicious one. Even "air gapped" networks are often connected. And aquarium monitoring programs can be gateways to a casino's Whale's Index. Older nanny cams with microphone links often broadcast signals for up to half mile. Key fobs can be hacked if keyrings are hung too close to front door. Police bumper beepers are even capable of being hacked. Hotel door keys can be hacked, so why not the toaster or the refrigerator. Even the safety devices of ship navigation systems are routinely hacked.
one phone ordered an Uber ride for a hundred mile detour because different programs used different definitions of home.
September 4th, 2019 at 6:43:48 AM permalink
OnceDear
Member since: Nov 21, 2017
Threads: 11
Posts: 1504
I quite liked this anecdote about internet connected hot tubs. You could sit in them happily sipping your champagne and some hacker could spontaneously change the temperature and turn the Jacuzzi bubbles and mood lights on and off remotely.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46674706

When I first got a wireless laptop I didn't have a WiFi router. However, I was able to connect to a neighbours WiFi and browse his network connected pc's for documents and images. I know which neighbour it was because I could browse his photos of the family in his garden and recognised my own house in the background. Oh Hum!

I've done similar at public WiFi points where I've stumbled into shared docs that should not have been. Sharing all of C:\ is quite common !!! Do you?

Many users set their default doc sharing to be far FAR too loose. Security cameras are funny. Used for security with insecure passwords so they actually become a vulnerability.
September 4th, 2019 at 4:53:54 PM permalink
gamerfreak
Member since: Feb 19, 2018
Threads: 4
Posts: 527
I love my internet connected thermostat and lights.

The issue isn’t the concept of IOT devices, they can absolutely be well designed to all but eliminate the risk of hacking.

The issue is big wig executives who think of code as a commodity and outsource development to Indian developers who working for peanuts. Hell, Boeing killed nearly 300 people with this strategy.