Actually, as consumers, they (mostly) do have options - lots of them.
In my case, I avoid the whole IoT thing like it were some virulent form of radioactive space herpes. It's not out of paranoia, but because my rural Satellite ISP has a bandwidth cap during most of any given 24-hour cycle. This means not bothering with the cute little automated/networked thermometers, televisions, refrigerators, etc...
To be honest, I don't see much value in them anyway - at least not at this time; I'm perfectly capable of s
I'm in the same boat. Due to numerous other Wi-Fi links around where I live, at best, I get reliable signal in one room, but that pretty much it. Because there are just so many devices yakking on Wi-Fi, even the 5Ghz band, where devices are supposedly to find the channel that is used the least, are saturated.
As for IoT devices, I do watch occasionally the Fiver channel on YT, which always has some new IoT item. Some are cool, others... why bother? If I were to spend the price premium for a "smart" fridge, I'd buy a refrigerator which runs on CNG or LP gas, as well as electric. Smart deadbolt? I'd like one that can tell me the status, and lock the deadbolt... but mechanically cannot unlock it from remote.
I've never understood why IoT devices don't move to a hub/spoke model. A hardened, central hub that does the Internet communicating, and the devices use Bluetooth and are paired with the hub (or hubs). This way, physical proximity is needed to the devices to had endpoints, and the hub can have IDS/IPS rules to handle compromised endpoint devices. This would go a long ways in solving the IoT security disaster.
I've never understood why IoT devices don't move to a hub/spoke model. A hardened, central hub that does the Internet communicating, and the devices use Bluetooth and are paired with the hub (or hubs).
Many do: Philips Hue, SmartThings, Iris (Lowes), VeraLite, and others do, except it's Z-Wave and/or ZigBee rather than Bluetooth that does the communicating. (Low-energy Bluetooth wasn't around when these standards were created, and Z-Wave and ZigBee also have the ability to form a mesh network rather than each needing to connect to the central bridge/hub.) WeMo is a notable one that doesn't work like this, as are Nest and several AppleHome Kit-capable products that connect directly to WiFi. I don't like th
Machines take me by surprise with great frequency.
- Alan Turing
Too late (Score:5, Insightful)
The convenience is worth the risk. The dumb-ass majority has spoken.
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
Fair point. But did they have any other options?
Are there secure IoTs?
Maybe, just maybe, the developers/manufacturers are at some fault.
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
Fair point. But did they have any other options?
Actually, as consumers, they (mostly) do have options - lots of them.
In my case, I avoid the whole IoT thing like it were some virulent form of radioactive space herpes. It's not out of paranoia, but because my rural Satellite ISP has a bandwidth cap during most of any given 24-hour cycle. This means not bothering with the cute little automated/networked thermometers, televisions, refrigerators, etc...
To be honest, I don't see much value in them anyway - at least not at this time; I'm perfectly capable of s
Re:Too late (Score:2)
I'm in the same boat. Due to numerous other Wi-Fi links around where I live, at best, I get reliable signal in one room, but that pretty much it. Because there are just so many devices yakking on Wi-Fi, even the 5Ghz band, where devices are supposedly to find the channel that is used the least, are saturated.
As for IoT devices, I do watch occasionally the Fiver channel on YT, which always has some new IoT item. Some are cool, others... why bother? If I were to spend the price premium for a "smart" fridge, I'd buy a refrigerator which runs on CNG or LP gas, as well as electric. Smart deadbolt? I'd like one that can tell me the status, and lock the deadbolt... but mechanically cannot unlock it from remote.
I've never understood why IoT devices don't move to a hub/spoke model. A hardened, central hub that does the Internet communicating, and the devices use Bluetooth and are paired with the hub (or hubs). This way, physical proximity is needed to the devices to had endpoints, and the hub can have IDS/IPS rules to handle compromised endpoint devices. This would go a long ways in solving the IoT security disaster.
Re: (Score:2)
The same reason security is an afterthought :(
Re: (Score:2)
I've never understood why IoT devices don't move to a hub/spoke model. A hardened, central hub that does the Internet communicating, and the devices use Bluetooth and are paired with the hub (or hubs).
Many do: Philips Hue, SmartThings, Iris (Lowes), VeraLite, and others do, except it's Z-Wave and/or ZigBee rather than Bluetooth that does the communicating. (Low-energy Bluetooth wasn't around when these standards were created, and Z-Wave and ZigBee also have the ability to form a mesh network rather than each needing to connect to the central bridge/hub.) WeMo is a notable one that doesn't work like this, as are Nest and several AppleHome Kit-capable products that connect directly to WiFi. I don't like th