CuriousIdent
Not yet SO old Great Old One
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,510
- Location
- Warwickshire, England.
Yeesh. My other half shared the first of those with me on Twitter at the weekend.
This is the major downside of The Internet of Things. When you purchase a PC, a Mac, a smartphone, a games console these things are set up to have basic protections to prevent third parties from commandeering them across the wires. Largely to protect their manufacturer's backsides from legal action, but all the same.
With the broader Internet of Things (and seriously, that's actually what it's called) there are far fewer protections of that kind in place. When it's your Printer, your kettle, your novelty camera which can be hooked up your home wifi not every manufacturer is going to be as diligent at taking steps to prevent third parties accessing their device.
Baby monitors though? You would think that would be an area where such things would be secured. It disturbs me greatly that somebody could be watching the schedule of parents' daily processes with their child. not just because that's kinda creepy (which kind of goes without saying) but because any such schedule being mapped out in such a way could be used by would-be child abductors to plan points of time where the child was left alone.
It's a similar reason to why I have strong reservations with linking heating, lighting, security cameras and other systems up to Alexa and other home assistants. Because if somebody were to be able to get hold of that information they could plan the comings and goings of a whole family. When they leave for work. When they switch out the lights to sleep. When they heat the house, and how likely that will mean they intend to be spending time at home. If somebody can plan out the comings and goings of a family home they could easily also plan out the best time and circumstances to break into it.