Smart home devices are being used in domestic abuse

[rslade]

The New York Times conducted more than 30 interviews with domestic abuse victims, lawyers, shelter workers, and emergency responders, who noted that Internet of Things devices were leveraged for purposes beyond the manufacturers' intentions. For example, abusers would reportedly control objects in their or their victim's home, watching and listening to conversations and comings and goings, or in some cases, using them to "scare or show power."  In some cases, the abusers would cause loud bursts of music to suddenly play, change the lighting, turn on or off heating or cooling units, or otherwise make a home seemingly act of its own accord.

It seems that anything we do to make life easier, someone else figures out a way to make it a threat.  In this case, a particularly nasty threat.

[Chuxing]

This is probably just a tip of a iceberg.

Home automation is very dangerous thing in my view. Yes it adds a lot conveniences to people's lives, but it also create a huge opportunity for ill-intended minds. Majority of home automation are not designed with high security, and the majority of the home users are not aware of the potentially huge security risks associated.

For the same reason, HVAC system is on the top of governmental security concerns, yet I have not seen the deserved attentions from most organizations.   

[Baechle]

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@rslade wrote:

The New York Times conducted more than 30 interviews with domestic abuse victims, lawyers, shelter workers, and emergency responders, who noted that Internet of Things devices were leveraged for purposes beyond the manufacturers' intentions. For example, abusers would reportedly control objects in their or their victim's home, watching and listening to conversations and comings and goings, or in some cases, using them to "scare or show power."  In some cases, the abusers would cause loud bursts of music to suddenly play, change the lighting, turn on or off heating or cooling units, or otherwise make a home seemingly act of its own accord.

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This is almost verbatim the kind of thing portrayed on Mr. Robot, Season 2, Episode 1 "eps2.0_unm4sk-pt1.tc" at about 18 minutes into the episode.

[Caute_cautim]

Here comes some more from Black Hat and Defcon - watching for the wave and hopefully awareness:

https://securityintelligence.com/stories-from-the-edge-of-iot-security-threat-demos-from-black-hat-a...

Regards

Caute_cautim