The Steel Kiss

INDULGENCE = DEATH?

THE DANGERS OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT)

Will consumer indulgence be the death of us?

From self-foaming soap to portion-controlled, calorie-specific meals delivered to consumers’ homes in time for dinner, manufacturers are increasingly marketing products geared to take over people’s lives. The justification is that they are helping busy professionals and families save time—and in some instances money—and make their lives easier. In reality, many of these items are simply desperate attempts to fill the pockets of companies facing markets saturated with competing products or in which brand differentiation has all but vanished.

But there’s a dark side to the expediency factor.

I’m speaking of what is called the Internet of Things, or IoT.

Thousands of appliances, tools, heating and air-conditioning systems, vehicles and industrial products, sport internal computer controls that allow consumers to access them remotely. These have been around for some years in the form of home security systems, in which video cameras are, in effect, mini computers connected to your Wi-Fi or cellular service. When you’re away, you log onto an Internet site—supposedly secure—and make sure no burglars are prowling through your living room or to keep an eye on the babysitter.

Now the proliferation of these “embedded devices” (that is, containing computer circuitry) is increasing exponentially.

They help us save money and make our lives so much more convenient.

Now you can turn your oven on from a remote location, turn your furnace up when you’re on your way home, tell your door to unlock for an hour when the plumber’s expected (and watch him at work on your security camera!), start your car remotely on below-zero days…  How convenient! What could be wrong with that?

Who can argue with this?

Well, I can.

Let me tell you two dangers:

ONE: IS YOUR DATA SAFE?

The way most smart controller systems work is that the appliances in your house are online with cloud servers run by the manufacturers of those appliances. While they “assure” you your privacy is important, all of them collect data about their products’ performance and your usage history, often without your knowledge. That information is routinely sold to data miners. Some effort is made to keep your identity anonymous but just consider: Last week a thirteen-year-old in Fresno got the names, addresses and credit card numbers of everyone who owned a General Heating furnace equipped with a smart controller. It took him six minutes to download that data.

TWO: IS YOUR LIFE SAFE?

More troubling is the potential for injury and death when a smart system malfunctions. Because all functions of smart appliances are managed by the controller, not just data collection, it’s possible in theory for a water heater, for instance, to receive a signal to turn the heat up to 200 degrees, WHILE YOU’RE IN THE SHOWER! Or, in the event of fire in your house, the controller could lock your doors and trap you inside your dwelling and refuse to send a signal to the fire department reporting the blaze. Or it might even contact the authorities and report a false alarm, leaving you and your family to die a hideous death.

Representatives for the manufacturers say no. There are safeguards built in. Network keys, encryption, passcodes.

But Your Blogger recently purchased one of these controllers. The DataWise5000 by CIR Microsystems, one of the most common, found in everything from water heaters to elevators to microwaves. It was possible, by bombarding the device with ambient radio waves, to cause it to malfunction. Had the unit been installed in a car, a medical instrument, a piece of dangerous industrial machinery, a stove, the results of that malfunction could have been disastrous.

Ask yourself, is convenience worth the price of your and your children’s lives?