The Dangers of the IoT

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

It’s been out there for a while but, at least to my perception, until recently it has not gotten the press or attention it should have received. It just tells me, personally speaking, that almost every component, big or small, that relies on updates through the network via a back door by the manufacturer is vulnerable and usable by those nefarious predators out there hell bent on doing harm, they are either/or/and process and/or resource predators and they are a danger to all of us connected. 

Krebs on Security has provided, and suffered the slings and arrows because of the articles, another article that informs us once again to the dangers of the IoT, the Internet of Things. I suggest every person/reader/listener to contact their representatives to push for some form of effort to get those who make all those IoT’s to secure them by default and set up some secure method to use security to open/close when a need to patch or update. 

Here is KrebsonSecurity’s article, read IT HERE. And, so you may remain informed he also provides an initial list of who makes the IoT used for such nefarious attacks of predatory origins. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)

I HAD a Great Software Product

But, thanks to the “Unusual Business Practices” of the software company that software is now gone. I paid a large sum of cash to purchase that software package and after a crash tried to reinstall the software only to find that the software company had not just taken the software off their market but set it up that when you try to install or reinstall it, it connects to their servers where you get a message that the license is no longer valid. What happens is if you want to get a replacement you have to shell out more money for a more complex and higher learning curve set of software programs. This really sucks.

I had used this piece of software for over a decade. It was simple, easy to use and the learning curve was the shortest I have ever encountered in my time testing out such software programs. What piece is it, well it is a simple program in the same area of other like programs such as Photoshop. It is NOT photoshop because that is still out there but it was a program that when coupled with other like development programs made life easy, fast and productive.

I found a open source program that some say is similar to the one taken from me unawares but it isn’t, it is not the simple, easy and short learning curve, it requires a lot more work to use in creating certain types of graphics.

I can’t help but wonder why the company decided to trigger the license as no longer valid for an old program they no longer sell or support except I can theorize that they wanted everyone to buy their new, improved and yet most difficult to learn programs. It seems that a deliberate programming effort was created to force people to upgrade but here is the rub, the old software was all I needed “ever” and would have served me for many more years so it bothers me that they would create a license killer sub-routine. It pissed me off so much that I went open source for a replacement and all the other programs on my work machine (the old program was on my personal machine), we use the same vendor for work, that I refuse to use those packages and refuse to lead them on my workstation (I removed them all from the machine after my old program was killed by the vendor).

I have seen or observed other vendors going this way by using the cloud installer where they check, it appears to check your machine for old software, then possibly kill your bought and paid for life licenses. That sucks! It is a bad business practice and when it becomes more prominent in software purchases I hope the buyers protest vehemently. 

IoT Security

Take a read at KrebsonSecurity for the article HERE. I recommend reading it then I also recommend taking a look at the devices you have at home and/or at your business. Since certain sources are selling less than secure devices, some that I feel were deliberately created to allow surreptitious access, to our companies who are using the devices as a part of a package puts us at risk.

If we as individuals, for it is us the individuals most at risk and who will pay the highest price of such insecurities, speak up and have both those companies as well as our legislatures, etc., take a positive role in making the IoT more secure and those that fail pay large sums of money, the sums that really hurt in relation to the offender be it individual or large business, then we will have gone a long way to create a more secure, a more safe and a more profitable Internet environment, both the surface we all see and the U-verse hidden underneath. 

The idea is to hinder all those fly-by-night predators that rely on the more nefarious ones who create ways to use and circumvent security in software, hardware and all the related IoT’s. 

Just sayin!!! Oh, and those nefarious dudes who are making IoT products the way they are, all such devices being imported must past rigorous testing before being allowed and then having a tariff like tax added to pay for it all. Just sayin!!!

The IoT or Internet of Things

Things being the operative word, things that are usually not secured or controlled well. These are things that help us with the Internet but are often not accessed or utilized by humans, they sit once installed and do their work while we spend our time on our computers doing stuff that travels through these things. 

Note that the source code that powers the “Internet of Things” (IoT) botnet responsible for launching the historically large distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against a variety of businesses and others. 

Here is a list, short or terse, that will allow you to fully understand what the IoT’s are:

ACTi IP Camera, ANKO Products DVR’s, Dreambox TV receiver, HiSilicon IP Camera’s, Panasonic Printer, Various Routers, Xerox printers, or in other words, “The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors and connectivity to enable it to achieve greater value and service by exchanging data with the manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices.”

Our drive to become connected requires a certain speed of manufacturer and along with even speedier research and development the products must by this nature reach the Internet and us as fast as inhumanly possible leaving humans in the lurch and under their control, a control that comes from the manufacturers, businesses, and etc., that drive the data mining and data broker business and drives other ancillary businesses and all outside our control and with little or no security other than theirs to protect them while leaving us, the customer and humans, out in the wild exposed to predatory predators.

It is becoming so pervasive and intrusive that soon criminal activity will migrate from the real world and into the virtual one because predatorial-criminals will no longer need to expose themselves to grave harm, death or other repercussions because finding them, arresting them and the prosecuting them due to technological wonder they are obscured from those seeking to find and arrest. 

The IoT is connected to you, your house, your devices like DVD’s and Televisions; also all the new devices like frigs, microwaves and all other persona accessories will be connected. Your medical and medicinal information is connected. Your personal activity connected, monitored and data-mined by the data-brokerages; remember that when your home is connected there is always the ability of “Someone watching you”; all sorts of devices connected to your phone that control things like your money, your identity, and things like heating, ovens, automobiles and even your plants - all connected and exposed as a part of the IoT, the Internet of Things. 

Remember how in the movies, like Tom Cruise’ in “Minority Report” where his every move was trackable resulting in so-called eye surgery to fool the IoT. Remember a more recent movie with Pierce Brosnan in “I.T.” where a nefarious emotionally disturbed employee used all his connectivity, through installed IoT, to wreak havoc on Mr. Brosnoa’s character Mike Regan. We used to think watching such “Science Fiction” that this would be both cool and horrible and now with today’s tech and the IoT, it is happening today and we are oblivious simply because our nature, triggered by certain influence manipulation professionals, has us feeling we need, need, need all this before anyone else like “The neighbors, the Jones” syndrome.

So, go ahead, jump on out there, become the person everyone envies who has everything, create that internet technological status but remember, there are nefarious predators out there that will use such as the IoT to attack you, take everything you have and leave you wondering and looking guilty as hell to everyone else who was previously envious of your status. 

Good Luck out There or as an old show would say when the police officers were headed toward the street, “Be careful out there!”

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)

Security-n-Convenience

In the world of security often those who are unable to see the criticality of such security tend to lean heavily toward convenience over security. Security takes effort and it often places extra requirements when working with sensitive information and most don’t want to take that time or effort to achieve that goal so they tend to dismiss, avoid and circumvent such security measures for extra convenience when performing duties involved in daily work. 

Convenience is a killer of security, the bottom line for profit is also a killer for security and security generally is ignored because it reduces profits rather than increase profit. It isn’t until security is compromised and data/information, etc., is stolen that suddenly the bottom line is adversely effected then causing those in positions of influence to suddenly scream about ‘where is the security’?

Even in the dark underworld of the Internet where security is taken seriously and from the start there is no true secure system as shown from a recent article where bit-coin services were hacked and robbed with not one iota of a chance those who had those coins can be redeemed. The only true security is to unplug from the Internet and because of the invasiveness of inter-connectedness that is no longer a guarantee. 

The only way I can see that security can even achieve a modicum of protection is by those in charge making security the highest priority in the creation, development and coding of all Enterprise Applications, etc. It is also necessary to provide harsh repercussions when the code is compromised even at the lowest levels. Gratification, convenience and profit must take a back seat to security for if not security breaches of the future will be so costly that no one can make a decent profit except those who are on the receiving end of such predatory thievery. 

For instance, even apps for the phone or that ‘rented cloud based software program’ we use daily, if you are compromised while using it the coders who created it must be harshly fined by their parent company and the parent company must be harshly fined at levels commensurate to their levels of profit - the real profit and not the obvious presented profits. Enforcement shall be harsh enough where actual jail time is possible starting at the highest levels of said parent company. 

Failure to provide adequate security is just plain stupid and irresponsible and that irresponsibility and stupidity shall be harshly dealt with from the highest levels on down to the actual coders. Everyone at every level shall “OWN” the security of their work, write out in long hand their responsibilities and then frame, hang in a position to read daily and then live the acceptance in all they do - security is foremost in their minds and the first thing they work on at the beginning of every days work. This starts with the CIO/CFO and trickles down to the fledgling coder in every software and associated company. 

The actual hand writing of the contact of promise to security shall be televised so that every customer or potential customer can bear witness then the hand written personal contracts are to be stored in original form electronically and displayed prominently on the company web sites and other such ‘company face’ and used to remind the individual they own security in all they do for they control the screens, control the code and control the Internet for good and evil. 

Only when such responsibility and ownership is created, assumed and witnessed can security become secure through diligence, effort and ownership of every person, persons and leadership. Until that is achieved such security breaches as at the OPM recently addressed at Kreb’s on Security can such compromises be, at a minimum, mitigated and prevented. 

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)

Hyper-mobility and more

In a recent finding, the below pdf link gives you the excerpt, I came across the following while researching human pattern recognition. You may find this … enlightening!

http://www.lifescapes.org/Papers/ACE%20Chapter%2012%20120930.pdf

Information becomes

“Information becomes increasingly accessible via the internet, so, too, does misinformation. Conspiracy theories and pseudoscience, which might otherwise be relegated to fringe publications, permeate Facebook and Twitter feeds. But connectivity can also provide quicker explanations – if NORAD had email in 1967, the "solar scare" probably would have been over before it began.” - Joseph Dussault